Some people see conspiracies everywhere – and in Marvel's Secret Invasion, it's justified.
These are all the Easter eggs and references you may have missed in the MCU's new conspiracy
thriller.
The various scraps that Prescod has collected on his conspiracy board as seen in the opening
moments of "Secret Invasion" reveal a lot about what the Skrulls have been up to.
For instance, Prescod mentions that the Skrulls were behind five terrorist attacks in five
countries, three of which were Argentina, Colombia, and the Philippines.
The other two can be gleaned from studying the wall: the fourth target was an Oktoberfest
celebration in Munich.
The location of the fifth attack is probably London, as another headline mentions people
injured in a London explosion.
"That's business as usual."
"That's precisely what they want you to think."
If you look closely, you'll also spot a CIA document labeled "Treadstone – Operation"
with a mugshot of somebody who is presumably a Skrull.
This might be alluding to "The Bourne Identity" and its sequels, as "Operation Treadstone"
is the name of the black ops organization that trains Jason Bourne to be an assassin.
Perhaps "Secret Invasion" was giving a tip of the hat to another espionage thriller.
Nick Fury's grudging ally Sonya Falsworth, portrayed by Olivia Colman, is a character
created specifically for the "Secret Invasion" TV series.
She has yet to appear in any of the Marvel comics, but her last name is awfully familiar.
Sonya shares a last name with James Montgomery Falsworth, a character from the comics who
takes on the mantle of the British superhero Union Jack.
Observant fans will know that James Falsworth has already appeared in the MCU as one of
the Howling Commandos in "Captain America: The First Avenger," but he's never called
Union Jack in the film.
It's likely that Sonya is meant to be directly descended from this ally of Captain America.
It's also worth noting that Joseph Chapman, a character in the comics who later succeeded
Falsworth as Union Jack, has actually fought Skrulls before.
It's possible that elements of both Chapman and James Falsworth could be combined to establish
a version of the hero played by Olivia Colman in the MCU.
Anybody watching "Secret Invasion" will immediately get Cold War vibes, because the show has strong
connections to Cold War espionage.
The show's creators wear their influences on their sleeves.
Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz has said that the series was inspired by spy thrillers
set in the Cold War, such as the novels of John le Carré and the TV series "The Americans."
Like in the Cold War, the threat of nuclear war looms over "Secret Invasion," though there's
one thing that distinguishes it from real-life events.
During the Cold War, there was always one thing that gave both sides pause: the possibility
of mutually assured destruction, which prevented both world powers from going too far.
There are no such assurances here; the Skrulls actually want mutually assured destruction.
The humans can blow each other sky-high, for all they care, because the Skrulls are unaffected
by radioactivity.
Marvel fans will spot an interesting Easter egg in the scene with Poprishchin during the
first episode.
You'll notice that Talos uses the same face that he used in "Captain Marvel" — that
is to say, Ben Mendelsohn's real face — and he even uses the same name.
"Agent Keller, anything in our file about this one having a wife?"
When Talos infiltrated SHIELD and first met Fury back in 1995, he used the name "Keller."
Clearly Talos is recycling the same fake identity.
The only real difference is that Talos wore glasses with his disguise in 1995.
It makes sense that Talos would dig up his old identity rather than make a new one.
Why reinvent the wheel?
This makes it easier for Talos to remember his fake name and cover story.
However, much like a person using the same password for every single account on every
single device, Talos may have gotten careless.
Recycling this identity is probably a mistake, because Poprishchin eventually sees through
the disguise and recognizes him.
It seems like Poprishchin must have worked with Talos in the past, so maybe he finally
remembered where he'd seen that face before.
It was probably those glasses that threw him off.
"But, they do kind of complete the look."
If you've been paying attention, then you'll know that some members of the Skrull Council
shown in Episode 2 have appeared elsewhere in the series.
Most of these Skrull leaders hold some kind of important position in human society, whether
they're world leaders or well-known television figures.
In the news coverage of the Moscow bombing, the Skrull acting as the U.K.
Prime Minister can be seen denouncing the attacks.
Meanwhile, Sergio Caspani, the NATO Secretary General is a Skrull — as well as Chris Stearns,
a talking head from an American news channel.
The only council members who don't seem to have infiltrated major institutions are Jack
Hyuk-Bin and Shirley Sagar.
Fans familiar with the 2008 "Secret Invasion" comics will know that the news reports — and
the subsequent reveal that these powerful people are Skrulls — parallel a scene from
the comics.
In "Secret Invasion" #5, there is an entire two-page spread devoted to showing all of
Earth's leaders on live TV, cheerfully announcing that they have been Skrulls all along.
Aside from being a unique location for an interrogation scene, the butcher's shop from
Episode 2 of "Secret Invasion" is also the source of an Easter egg.
If you look closely, you will glimpse a logo on a white coat hanging in the front of the
shop in the stylized shape of a bull.
That same logo is planted in the background of the previous episode: when G'iah is sneaking
around Moscow on her way to meet up with Poprishchin, there is a refrigerated truck in the background
that bears this same logo.
If the entire butcher's shop is a front for one of Sonya's operations, then this would
suggest that Sonya wasn't far behind when Fury and Talos were tailing G'iah.
Of course, it also seems like Sonya is running her operation right under the nose of the
owner, who seems pretty surprised when Sonya waltzes into his shop despite it being locked.
Either that, or he's simply being paid to let MI6 use his shop and not ask questions.
If that's the case, it might just be an astonishing coincidence that the butchers were unloading
meat just a few feet away from a Skrull.
The sequence that shows Nick Fury and Bob taking hostages was foreshadowed in a previous
MCU film.
As Fury and Talos are sneaking around the house of the Skrull posing as Robert "Bob"
Fairbanks, a message from Talos to Fury via earpiece signals that something is amiss.
"Come in, Talos."
"Sorry, Nick.
I was busy kicking Bob's ass."
At a glance, this dialogue sounds innocent enough — but Fury can tell that something's
wrong.
It turns out that Bob is holding Talos at gunpoint in an attempt to lure Fury into a
trap, but Fury doesn't fall for it.
Fans who paid close attention during "Captain Marvel" would also know immediately that something
isn't right.
When Fury meets Carol Danvers in 1995, he refuses to be addressed by anything other
than his last name.
"Everybody calls me Fury.
Not Nicholas.
Not Joseph.
Not Nick.
Just Fury."
If you already know that Fury's first name is a touchy subject for him, then it's easy
to spot Bob's deception from a mile off.
Unlike Talos, Bob hasn't known Fury for decades, so he couldn't possibly have known that trying
to get onto a first-name basis with him is a big no-no.
One scene from Episode 4 of "Secret Invasion" shows Talos and G'iah sitting on a park bench.
You may have been too focused on their heartfelt conversation to notice that the bench is seemingly
meant to be a memorial, as it's engraved with the words "Carter 1933-2000."
The first name on the dedication is obscured, so we can only theorize about who it refers
to.
It's definitely not Peggy Carter.
If Peggy had been born in 1933, she would have only been a child during the events of
"Captain America: The First Avenger."
However, it's very possible that Peggy Carter had a younger sibling: in fact, the TV series
"Agent Carter" shows that Peggy has a brother named Michael.
Of course, "Agent Carter" is not necessarily canon, and the dates don't quite add up.
After all, Michael wouldn't have been old enough to serve during World War II if he
was born in 1933.
Regardless, Peggy Carter almost definitely has some kind of sibling in the MCU, even
if it's not Michael.
In "Captain America: Civil War," Sharon Carter mentions that Peggy is her aunt, and Vancamp
later clarified that Peggy is technically Sharon's great-aunt.
That means that Peggy must have had a sibling, who would be Sharon's grandparent.
There's something satisfying about a little continuity.
During the tavern scene in Episode 2, Fury gets into a little scuffle with an unnamed
member of Rhodey's security detail.
When the man tries to grab Fury and escort him out the door, Fury breaks from his grip
and twists the man's arm behind his back.
Observant fans have pointed out that this same character appears again in Episode 4,
in the scene where Rhodey greets President Ritson.
The agent's arm is in a sling, clearly the result of his highly-regrettable encounter
with Fury.
"I'm Nick Fury.
Even when I'm out – I'm in."
Many Marvel fans were hoping to see an Avenger besides Rhodey in "Secret Invasion."
It didn't end up happening, but we did get a cameo of an MCU character you've probably
forgotten about.
We bet you've never given a second thought about Rick Mason from "Black Widow."
If you recall, Mason is the guy who Natasha called when she needed to lie low.
When Natasha was on the run in "Black Widow," he provided her with a safehouse and multiple
fake identities, including the unfortunate moniker of Fanny Longbottom.
We suspect that nobody was expecting Mason to appear in "Secret Invasion," yet in Episode
5 he pokes his head into Nick Fury's jet, tossing Fury a fake ID and some sassy one-liners.
"You're welcome."
A grumpy Fury mentions that he'd rather be on his Helicarrier, and Mason explains that
it's been mothballed – though where a thing like that would fit feels like a bit of an
open question.
The last we saw of Fury's famous Helicarriers, after Steve Rogers needed to destroy most
of the fleet to stop HYDRA, was when Fury brought one out of storage to help the Avengers
in the Battle of Sokovia.
Unfortunately, Fury didn't get to bring out the big guns in this series, but there's always
a chance that we may see them again in the future.
In the episode 5 scene at the Finnish airport, "Secret Invasion" introduces us to a character
we've never seen before, a man called Mr. Kerhonen.
The next scene reveals that Kerhonen is actually Fury in disguise, and he is using a special
technology that we first saw in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."
Natasha used the same trick to sneak inside SHIELD headquarters.
It turns out this tech has a name: the Widow's Veil.
The tech also played a small but pivotal role in 2021's "Black Widow," and appeared in "The
Falcon and the Winter Soldier," along with a few episodes of "Agents of SHIELD."
Of course, the Widow's Veil in "Secret Invasion" is not as sophisticated as what we saw in
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" — a fact that Sonya gleefully lampshades.
"A billion dollars of research and development, and all the Widow's Veil can cloak is your
face?
What about the rest of you?"
"That's the newer version.
Not this one."
Fury still needs to wear gloves just to conceal his hands, while when Natasha used this tech,
her holographic mesh extended to cover her hands.
Despite its shortcomings, the Widow's Veil is still the closest Nick Fury will ever get
to having the shape-shifting abilities of a Skrull.
When Rhodey is urging President Ritson to plunge the planet into a nuclear war, we are
given a brief glimpse of the bunker that contains the nuclear warheads.
It will look awfully familiar to Marvel fans; it's visually very similar to the bunker where
Tony Stark and Steve Rogers fought at the end of "Captain America: Civil War."
That bunker didn't originally hold nukes, but it's certainly possible that the former
HYDRA bunker could have been rebuilt or repurposed by the U.S. government in the intervening
time – or maybe Marvel Studios is just re-using a design.
Our bet is that the parallel was likely intentional on the showrunners' part, as this wasn't the
first time they used a visual reference to "Captain America: Civil War."
The title cards that appear on the screen in "Secret Invasion" to introduce new locations
are in the exact same font as the title cards that appear in "Captain America: Civil War."
Clearly, the creators of this show were trying to signal that "Secret Invasion" falls under
the same genre as "Civil War" — relatively grounded espionage thriller — and use those
nods to show that the two belong in the same corner of the MCU.
During the show's climax, Gravik and G'iah show off their new powers, which come from
the DNA of several different Marvel characters.
Both use Captain Marvel's abilities to fly and shoot beams of cosmic energy.
Throughout the fight, Gravik's arms shapeshift into the arms of Korg, the Abomination, Cull
Obsidian, and Ebony Maw.
He also flaunts Ebony Maw's telekinesis powers.
Meanwhile, G'iah also borrows the DNA of Korg and Cull Obsidian, and she flexes a bicep
that clearly belongs to Drax.
While she's at it, she dodges a car by phasing out, a power she got from Ghost from "Ant-Man
and the Wasp."
G'iah even uses the empath abilities of Mantis.
"Sleep."
Several other character's abilities were not shown in the battle, but their DNA was still
clearly part of the Harvest, according to Gravik's computer monitor.
These include Captain America, the Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Thor, Groot, and so
many more.
If you examine the list closely, it does raise some questions about where Fury got some of
the DNA samples.
Fury explains in Episode 5 that he collected the DNA from the blood spilled at the Battle
of Earth in "Avengers: Endgame."
Some fans have observed that a couple of the DNA donors — namely, Ghost and The Abomination
— weren't present at the Battle of Earth, so Fury must have gotten them elsewhere.
"He is a Skrull."
The reveal that Rhodey was actually a Skrull has huge implications for the MCU, but the
biggest question is how long he's been replaced by one.
Some have guessed that Rhodey was only replaced after his cameo in "The Falcon and the Winter
Soldier," while others have speculated that Rhodey was a Skrull ever since "Iron Man 2."
Episode 6 of "Secret Invasion" doesn't provide an exact period of time.
"You've been held hostage for a long time."
However, there are little clues that allow us to guess when Rhodey might have been replaced
by an imposter.
Once Rhodey is released from his pod, we see he has difficulty walking.
Everyone else walks just fine, so it's not something you can chalk up to numb legs from
lying in their pods so long.
More likely, this suggests that the real Rhodey was present in all the MCU movies up until
"Captain America: Civil War," when he received his spinal injury.
In "Secret Invasion," we see Rhodey wearing a hospital gown, which suggests that maybe
he was replaced while he was still recovering from the "Civil War" incident.
We have no way of knowing for sure — at least until the release of "Armor Wars," which
will presumably fill in what happened to Rhodey.