Entertainment

How Avengers: Endgame Could Set Up Secret Invasion

There’s no denying the anticipation around Avengers: Endgame. Not only do people await with bated breath, the conclusion of this decade-long saga, they’re also equally excited about what lies ahead. To that end, aside from the integration of X-Men and Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the chief storylines that fans are more than pumped up to see play out in the MCU is Secret Invasion.

A multi-issue storyline from the comic books, Secret Invasion saw a majority of the Marvel Comics Universe’s power players secretly turn out to be Skrulls, shapeshifters who can take any form and more than capable of mimicking humans. It lead to a lot of trust issues and betrayals and could potentially make for an excellent arc to carry the MCU over the next few years. And with Captain Marvel all set to introduce the Skrulls to the MCU, with the producers even open to laying the groundwork for a Secret Invasion, it only makes sense that Avengers: Endgame set up Secret Wars in some form.

We do have a theory about how Endgame could end up doing exactly that. Potential spoilers follow so tread with caution.

It’s all but a given at this point that the remaining Avengers will reverse Thanos’ snap and undo the events of Avengers: Infinity War. For a laydown of how that’s going to happen, I suggest you read this but the general gist is that the Avengers are either going to travel back in time, or in some alternate, parallel multiverse dimension to get back their fallen Avengers. But if everything is undone, there would have essentially been no consequences of what went down. This is where Endgame will smartly not only reverse the tragedies, but set ground for some new ones to occur.

As such, when the events of Avengers: Endgame play out, the Avengers would have messed and tampered with the very fabric of time and reality. This will lead to a new reality, that is exactly the same as the present one with the MCU, but with key events in history altered. One of the events to be altered will be the planned Skrull invasion of earth. While Captain Marvel will see Carol Danvers successful in stopping the Skrull invasion, the meddling with time-space in Avengers: Endgame will distort history resulting in a past where the Skrulls succeeded in invading earth. The end result is that by the time Endgame is done, the Skrulls would have already established themselves in several key positions setting the stage out for Secret Invasion.

The next few movies would then see this gradually revealed, starting with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6. It’s highly possible every other MCU movie has someone masquerading as a Skrull as part of its main narrative, or in a post-credits scene. Or, characters in subsequent Phase Four movies will behave strangely only to be revealed as Skrulls later on. It’s also possible this is how Quicksilver comes back; Endgame might have the characters revive Pietro Maximoff only to have him turn out to be a Skrull later on. All of this would jibe in well with Baron Mordo’s concern in Doctor Strange when Strange manipulated time to defeat Dormammu: The bill always comes due.

Finally, it’s most certainly possible that some superheroes turn out to be Skrulls as well. This could lead to some really interesting dramatic tension between characters as they begin doubting each other’s identity and have a hard time trusting anyone. It could potentially break someone like Captain America’s spirit, whose very essence is built around faith in people, assuming of course Chris Evans continues the contract and Captain America lives after Avengers: Endgame.

So that’s my theory, about how Skrulls and Secret Invasion will play a major role in Marvel’s Phase Four. The Russo Brothers have also hinted that they’ll only return to direct a movie at Marvel if it’s Secret Invasion and I can only hope they wouldn’t have dropped a major hint like that if something wasn’t in the pipeline already. What do you make of this? Sound off your thoughts in the comments below.

Avengers: Endgame releases in theaters on April 26, 2019. A Superbowl Spot should air next week.