Secret Invasion has broken a record of sorts compared to all of the other Disney Plus Marvel Cinematic Universe shows so far — but that’s not exactly a good thing. You see, fans have calculated that the entire miniseries has the dishonorable trait of the shortest total runtime of any Disney Plus MCU show.
As a Reddit user put together with the use of a handy spreadsheet, they shared on the r/MarvelStudios subreddit that Secret Invasion only had a total length of 3:43:30 when you remove “episode recaps, intros, and credits from the reported runtimes.”
Why is this a bad thing, exactly? First of all, as the user argued, the comics source material was so grandiose — encompassing multiple superheroes, including the Avengers who were replaced with Skrulls — that the major crossover event of a storyline could have been spread out over multiple movies and given its own MCU Phase. Instead, we got a show that did not even feature one superhero getting involved in the conflict.
Beyond that, though, the short runtime underlines what is becoming an increasingly persistent problem with these Disney Plus MCU shows, in general. You see, many of these shows arguably don’t truly justify their own existence in terms of being relegated to a TV series. Instead, they often come across as a movie that is spread out over several episodes, as multiple Reddit users pointed out.
When it comes to Secret Invasion, specifically, the earlier episodes clocked in at almost an hour long, with each subsequent installment seemingly getting shorter and shorter. This adds to the idea that Marvel is setting up an expectation for audiences that it can’t ultimately commit to, leading to disappointment for some.
This systemic problem that the Mouse House seems to have with drip-feeding content for series that feel like they are one drawn-out movie is especially odd when you compare it to the pre-Disney Plus MCU TV era. For instance, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC — a show with similar themes and even some overlapping characters — boasted a comparatively impressive 22 episodes per season with a runtime of 45 minutes each. And surprisingly, S.H.I.E.L.D. arguably never lost its steam, with it receiving a commendable 95 percent average on Rotten Tomatoes. When you compare that to Secret Invasion‘s “Rotten” 58 percent, so far, it’s baffling as to why Disney didn’t choose to stick with a winning formula when they had it.