Secret Invasion Casts British People
The Skrulls are beginning to take shape, as Marvel’s Secret Invasion has added some new cast members. The first to be reported was Kingsley Ben-Adir via Deadline; Ben-Adir, known for portraying Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, is supposedly playing one of the main villains, which must make him a Skrull. A few days later, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Olivia Colman, Oscar-winning lead of The Favourite, will also appear in the series, though her role is unknown. And finally, Variety has announced that Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke will join the series, also in an unspecified role. The three MCU newcomers are joined by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, a nice guy Skrull who has so far sucked all the menace out of one of Marvel’s coolest alien races. Secret Invasion will consist of six episodes that will stream on Disney+, and though filming should begin later this year, no release date has been set.
Marvel knows how to hook you with its casting choices (most of the time, anyway). I haven’t seen anything with Kingsley Ben-Adir; I gave up on Peaky Blinders before he joined, and I’ll never watch the High Fidelity show because it should be a war crime to remake a movie as perfect as that. (I know, it’s “just a new adaptation of the book” – as a remake of The Godfather would be.) I like Olivia Colman very much, though, through a British sitcom called Peep Show and especially from her role as a spymaster on the wonderful The Night Manager (opposite Marvel mainstay and fellow Brit Tom Hiddleston). But it’s useless to pretend Emilia Clarke doesn’t excite me the most. I adored her as Daenerys on Game of Thrones, where she was tied with Tyrion as my favorite character. Nothing she’s done since seems to have caught on (I sat through the abysmal Last Christmas for her; save yourselves), so I’m glad she’s got something else high-profile on her docket, aside from a sequel that had no right existing. Now comes the guessing game, where we play Vegas odds on who these three are portraying. Ben-Adir sounds like a lock for one of the head Skrulls, and I have no idea who Colman could be. As for Clarke, my first guess would be Vernake, the Skrull Queen and main villain of the “Secret Invasion” comic story, although We Got This Covered (yeah, I know, it’s like quoting the kid on the playground who eats bugs, but we’re just speculating here) suggests she could be Abigail Brand, the leader of SWORD. It would make sense to bring her in after WandaVision – I actually thought that show might end with her appearance – but Emilia Clarke isn’t right for the role. Abigail is tough and ill-tempered, and I don’t see her pulling that off convincingly. She can play Vernake because it’s a more regal, sexy kind of evil rather than an in-your-face ball buster. But we’ll see what happens.
Do you like the Secret Invasion casting? Who do you think each actor will play? Is there room for another British star among the Skrull ranks? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned to Geeks + Gamers for more TV news!
