Secret Invasion is an American television miniseries created by Kyle Bradstreet for the streaming service Disney+, based on the 2008 Marvel Comics storyline of the same name.

Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn reprise their respective roles as Fury and Talos from previous MCU media, with Kingsley Ben-Adir, Killian Scott, Samuel Adewunmi, Dermot Mulroney, Richard Dormer, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, Charlayne Woodard, Christopher McDonald, and Katie Finneran also starring.

During production, much of the series' creative team was replaced, with Brian Tucker taking over as writer from Bradstreet and Bezucha exiting, and extensive reshoots took place from mid-June to late September 2022.

[3][4] Reprising their MCU roles are Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill,[28] Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross,[29] and O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason.

[32] Also appearing are Ben Peel as Brogan, a rebel Skrull who is tortured by Falsworth;[33] Seeta Indrani as Shirley Sagar, Christopher Goh as Jack Hyuk-Bin, Giampiero Judica as NATO Secretary General Sergio Caspani, and Anna Madeley as the UK prime minister Pamela Lawton, all members of the Skrull Council;[25][26] Juliet Stevenson as Maria Hill's mother Elizabeth;[34] and Charlotte Baker and Kate Braithwaite as Soren, the wife of Talos and mother of G'iah who was killed by Gravik; Baker portrays Soren's human disguise while Braithwaite portrays her Skrull appearance.

[36] In September 2020, Kyle Bradstreet was revealed to be developing a television series for the streaming service Disney+ centered on the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury.

[5] In December 2020, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige officially announced a new series titled Secret Invasion, with Jackson co-starring with Ben Mendelsohn in his MCU role of Talos.

[48] Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Schwartz served as executive producers on the series alongside Jackson, Selim, Bradstreet, and Tucker.

[43][52] The creatives were also inspired by the Cold War-era espionage novels of John le Carré, the television series Homeland (2011–2020) and The Americans (2013–2018),[3] and the film The Third Man (1949).

[59][60][11] In May 2021, Christopher McDonald joined the cast as newscaster Chris Stearns, a newly created character rather than one from the comics, who had the potential to appear in other MCU series and films.

[60][25] Carmen Ejogo had joined the cast by November 2021 (although she ultimately did not appear in the series),[36] and the next month, Smulders was set to reprise her MCU role as Maria Hill.

[28] In February 2022, set photos revealed that Don Cheadle would appear in his MCU role of James "Rhodey" Rhodes, along with Dermot Mulroney as United States President Ritson.

[67][68][69] Method Studios issued a statement in response to criticism stating that none of their artists had been replaced with artificial intelligence for the sequence and that the technology, both existing and custom-built for this series, was just one tool that their team used to achieve a specific final look.

The statement elaborated that many elements in the sequence were created using traditional tools and techniques, and the artificial intelligence technology was just used to add an "otherworldly and alien look" which the creative team felt "perfectly aligned with the project's overall theme and the desired aesthetic".

[71] Filming had begun by September 1, 2021, in London,[72] under the working title Jambalaya,[73] with Selim directing the series,[4] and Remi Adefarasin serving as cinematographer.

[13] Visual effects for the series were provided by Digital Domain, FuseFX, Luma Pictures, MARZ, One of Us, Zoic Studios, and Cantina Creative.

Vary of Variety said the footage had an "overall vibe... of paranoia and foreboding", believing the series would fit with the larger "anti-heroic thread" building in Phase Five of the MCU.

Polygon's Austen Goslin felt the trailer was "mostly a recap of the series' plot",[92] while Vanity Fair's Anthony Breznican noted how Fury had both eyes and said he "appears to be done relying on others to help save the world".

[93] Tamera Jones from Collider felt the trailer was "action-packed with explosions and intrigue, giving off more of a spy vibe than a fun paranoid mystery".

[4] Edidiong Mboho of Collider felt the trailer "evokes the thrill and excitement" like the first one and provided the "same sense of urgency and paranoia from the Skrull infiltration".

[95] Dais Johnston of Inverse felt that every shot of the trailer provided a "flashy-but-gritty spy-fi story that swaps out the powers and wisecracks of past works for the ingenuity and strategy Nick Fury is known for".

The locked website was initially revealed through cryptic images tweeted on the series' official Twitter account, which included clues to form the password that allowed access to it.

[101][102] Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, calculated that Secret Invasion was the seventh most-watched streaming original television series of 2023.

The site's critic's consensus states: "A well-deserved showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Secret Invasion steadies itself after a somewhat slow start by taking the MCU in a darker, more mature direction.

[110] Richard Newby at Empire gave the series 4 out of 5 stars, feeling that it was "a riveting, tense drama that gifts its actors with weighty material and encourages its audience to look beyond the sheen of superheroism."

Newby found the series had taken a "sharp turn" from the sense of comfort of previous MCU projects due to the depiction of mature themes, such as terrorism and torture.

[111] Eric Deggans of NPR praised the performance of Samuel L. Jackson and called the series an "antidote to superhero fatigue", writing, "By centering on an aging Nick Fury who is struggling to handle a crisis created by his own broken promises, we get a story focused much more on a flawed hero than some kind of super-person juggling computer-generated cars.

"[112] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian gave the show a grade of 3 out of 5 stars, stating, "Some moments in Marvel's latest TV series remind you how utterly watchable brilliant actors are – despite this darker, more mature outing needing a tad more thought.