Secret Invasion an “Attempt to really dive back” for MCU to Find the Light Like ‘The Winter Soldier’, Says Kevin Feige

The year was 2008 and the world was familiarizing itself with the fetal Marvel Cinematic Universe. But while the fans were busy falling in love with Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man simultaneously, elsewhere, the Skrulls descended upon mankind in the comic book pages of Brian Michael Bendis’ Secret Invasion that very same year under Marvel’s publication.

Now, 15 years later and five Phases into the narrative arc of the ubiquitous and all-encompassing MCU, Secret Invasion gets its first taste of the live-action wonders of Marvel through Disney+ as a horde of familiar faces from the golden age of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes waltzes in to take control of the developing story.

MCU Brings Back a Taste of Old Wonder in Secret Invasion

By the time Marvel introduced Sebastian Stan‘s Winter Soldier to the world, MCU was already 8 films deep into the live-action lore and Phase II of the Infinity Saga. But the movie’s grounded approach to espionage, lack of the superheroic element, and the threat of societal downfall due to the evolution of technology added with a mix of mayhem across the organizations that control a global network of spies made The Winter Soldier one of the most enduring and critically successful films of Marvel’s cinematic canon.

Now, Kevin Feige wants to bring back the magic that guided the narrative threads and framework of The Winter Soldier. The latest in a slew of Disney+ releases, Secret Invasion, which adapts the work of Brian Michael Bendis into live-action becomes the perfect battleground to test the on-screen representation of the spies that usually work in the background of MCU’s more heroically-inclined stories. And after the execution of the poorly-received experimental Phase Four, Kevin Feige needs a strong hand to parlay the lost fandom back into the room, especially after the negative publicity related to the events surrounding Victoria Alonso, Jonathan Majors, and Tenoch Huerta.

Kevin Feige’s High Hopes For Disney+ Show Secret Invasion

Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, whose latest production has just launched on the Disney+ streaming platform has taken up the audience’s undivided attention for the ideas it supports and promotes. Feige promises it to be a “darker, grittier spy show” as opposed to the fortunately optimistic and happy-go-lucky, sitcom-style, tongue-in-cheek productions that populated MCU Phase Four.

We love to do different genres for everything, and this was an attempt to really dive back into things we touched upon in The Winter Soldier. I really loved Winter Soldier, so that tone flows into Secret Invasion in a very real kind of way. It’s a story about people doing people stuff, without, you know, all those supers coming in to save you.

Also read: Real Reason Samuel L Jackson Ranks Secret Invasion Above Captain America: The Winter Soldier: “I really loved Winter Soldier, so…”

And to look at the realistic side of things, there aren’t many superheroes left to swoop in and save the day anymore. The Avengers are essentially disbanded and scattered all over and there is a power vacuum in the group’s leadership role since the events of Endgame. The new MCU is still in a fetal stage of development with the young Avengers just coming into their powers.

As such, it is a good time to go back and dive into the characters of the past who have helped shape the world of MCU in such a monumental way (we are looking at you, Samuel L. Jackson) and invoke the stories that were left incomplete in favor of the larger, more necessary plots leading up to Endgame, especially the Skrulls from Captain Marvel who have chronologically been on Earth since the 90s, decades before the Iron Man or the First Avenger landed in the real-time setting of the MCU.

Secret Invasion is available for streaming on Disney+.

Source: Discussing Film