- [Dan] This is Nick Fury,
super spy extraordinaire,
mastermind behind the Avengers
and a man with very specific rules
about eating toast.
He's also secretly been
a shapeshifting alien for far longer
than any of us had realized.
(bright music)
Welcome to Explainiac.
I'm Dan Casey and today,
we're seeking an answer
to a very important question.
One that contains a major spoiler
for Spider-man: Far From Home
if you somehow haven't seen that yet.
(ding)
When exactly did the Skrull operative Talos
replace Nick Fury in the Marvel cinematic universe.
This shocking reveal came in the post-credit scene
for Spider-man: Far From Home
when Nick Fury and Maria Hill
were revealed to have
secretly been Talos and his wife, Soren
in disguise the entire time.
The actual Nick Fury is off-world
on a space station presumably drinking
Zero G Mai Tais and commanding S.W.O.R.D.,
the interstellar counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D.
but that is a story for another episode.
What we want to know
is when Talos and Soren exactly
took over for Nick Fury and Maria Hill.
And to find our answers,
we're gonna have to pull
from several popular fan theories
and put them under the microscope.
All of them point to the fact
that Talos has been operating undercover
as Nick Fury for far longer
than the events of Far From Home.
According to Redditor Jacob Wallace,
Talos replaced Fury sometime between
the events of Captain America: the Winter Soldier
and before Avengers: Age of Ultron.
When Fury was shot during the Winter Soldier,
he needed time to recover.
But our foolish Earth medicine
wasn't advanced enough to save him.
Also, he doesn't have insurance.
So that schpiel he gives about
using a chemical to reduce his heart rate
was apparently a big old lie,
at least according to the theory.
Rather, Fury went to outer space
to recuperate while Talos
assumed his duties on Earth.
Now, don't worry,
there is some evidence to back this up.
As you may recall,
Nick Fury first encountered the Skrulls
during the events of Captain Marvel
during the 1990s.
Classically considered to be villains
in the Marvel Comics canon,
the shapeshifting alien Skrulls
turned out to be
an ailing alien refugee race
on the run from the murderous Kree.
Aided by Fury and Captain Marvel,
they evidently became allies
over the years that followed.
But there's one crucial detail
that occurs in Captain Marvel,
Nick Fury mentions a very specific
and very weird detail
about himself to Carol Danvers
in case she ever needed
to definitely prove whether or not
he himself was a Skrull.
That detail is that he can't eat toast
if it's cut diagonally.
He can't.
(sigh)
All right, we all have our things,
I guess.
Flash forward though
to Avengers: Age of Ultron
and what is Nick Fury clearly seen eating
in Hawkeye's secret farm kitchen?
That's right, diagonally sliced toast.
That's not just a smoking gun,
it's a vaping cannon.
Another Redditor, Sex Machine,
nice, adds further fuel to this fire
by pointing out that Maria Hill
consistently called Nick Fury, "Nick",
when in Captain Marvel, he claims
that everyone calls him Fury.
Now this allegedly helps prove
that Maria Hill was Soren
in disguise alongside Talos
who might not know this
fun nomenclature thing
and these toast details
that really comprise the entire rich tapestry
that makes up Nick Fury.
Now, according to this theory,
it was Talos not Nick Fury
who got dusted during the blip.
Another piece of speculation
is when the snappening begins to happen
during the post-credit scene
of Avengers: Infinity War,
Nick Fury says, "Call Control, Code Red".
He's not asking for Mountain Dew,
he's referring to the spaceship
that we see the real Nick Fury on
in the post-credit scene of Far From Home.
Now Talos tells Peter Parker
that he saw him at the funeral
which means that he's at least
been under cover as Nick Fury
since Avengers: Endgame
or it means the real Nick Fury
briefed him exceptionally well
which kind of tracks
given that he's a (beep) damn super spy.
However, given the influx
of Avenger's level threats
that have been coming
from outer space since the 90s,
it stands to reason that
at least after the battle of New York,
Fury might have devised plans
to create a S.H.I.E.L.D equivalent
for off-world threats
and accelerated those plans
in the wake of his injury in Winter Soldier.
Plus, during Fury's encounter with Tony Stark
in Hawkeye's secret barn,
that guy loves a farm that's off the grid,
he says something a little suspicious,
"Back in the day,
I had eyes everywhere. Ears everywhere else.
You kids had all the tech you could dream up.
Now here we all are,
back on Earth with nothing
but our wit and our will
to save the world."
It's that "here we all are back on Earth" part
that stands out in particular.
Is he maybe just referencing
Tony's PTSD inducing trip into space
to destroy the Chitauri?
Or is he perhaps alluding
to the fact that he's
a shapeshifting Skrull in disguise
who's returned to Earth one more time.
Sounds compelling enough, right?
Well, if it's true,
it raises plenty of questions.
Case in point,
the Captain Marvel two-way intergalactic pager,
now available at Radio Shack.
Carol Danvers gave it to Nick Fury
in case of emergency
at the end of Captain Marvel
and Fury used it at the very end
of Infinity War to summon Carol
to help the Avengers
defeat Thanos in Endgame.
If the real Fury were off-world,
then why did Talos have the pager.
It seems like a pretty valuable device
just to hand off to your doppelganger.
And, like, when do they make
this switcheroo anyway?
Did it happen during the events
of Captain Marvel too?
Is that when the handoff happened?
When did the pager
go from Nick Fury to Talos?
Only time will tell.
Plus when Carol Danvers
makes her triumphant return to Earth
in the post-credit scene of Captain Marvel,
she doesn't ask for Talos,
she asks for Fury.
If the real Nick Fury had been
out in space creating S.W.O.R.D. this whole time,
something tells me that Carol would probably
be aware of that fact
if she's like space cop number one.
And last but not least,
while most people simply call Nick Fury, "Fury",
Cap does refer to him as Nick
before Bucky shoots Nick
outside of his apartment.
So, look, it's not an airtight theory
but in order of likelihood,
I would say that Fury and Talos
made the switcheroo after the events
of Avengers: Endgame
but potentially as early as the period
between the Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron.
But without more data on our side,
it's honestly impossible to say
with any degree of certainty
in the meantime.
But, tell me,
what do you think?
When do you think that Nick Fury
was replaced by Talos?
And what is Nick Fury
actually doing out on that space station?
Let me know in the comments below
and shapeshift your hand
into a thumbs up while you're there.
Thank you so much for watching.
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And remember,
not everything in life can be explained
but for everything else,
there's this show.
(bright music).