WARNING: This article has SPOILERS forSecret InvasionSkrull impostors are taking over the world inSecret Invasion. However, according to Kevin Feige, one character always had to be a shapeshifter.
Featured inCaptain Marvelfor their big screen debut,Skrulls were immediately considered a threat in the MCU. Carol (Brie Larson) was indoctrinated into believing that all Skrulls were evil and joined the cause to fight them. This was proven false when the Kree exposed themselves as the film’s real antagonists. Carol bonded with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who only wanted to find a planet for Skrull refugees. But in the intervening time since that occurred, a secret faction of Skrulls was concocting a plan to take over Earth. Led by the bloodthirsty Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), his so-called rebels began taking over the lives of key figures in theMCU. The opening moments ofSecret Invasionepisode 1 reveal that Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) had been a Skrull imposter for an indeterminate time. But he wasn’t the only one.
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Even more shocking was the realization that James “Rhodey” Rhodes, AKA War Machine, had been a Skrull for some time. This betrayal may be upsetting, but Feige went on the record to explain why Rhodey had to be taken over by a Skrull spy inSecret Invasion. “We needed to have a character that one would not expect to be a Skrull,” Feige toldMarvel.com. “Don [Cheadle] was on board for this reveal of playing and revealing another side of Rhodey and revealing that, yeah, Rhodey has been a Skrull.”
Hints that Rhodey was a Skrullhad been piling up since his first appearance inSecret Invasion. Rhodey fired Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) from S.A.B.E.R. while calling him Nick in the same breath. Fury’s wife Priscilla then later spoke covertly on the phone about the rebels to someone who sounded a lot like Rhodey. All these facts added to a big reveal that Iron Man’s (Robert Downey Jr.) partner-in-crime wasn’t who he appeared to be. This leads to questions about how long a Skrull has been wearing Rhodes' face. But an even more pressing question is why this feels like a betrayal.
Rhodey’s character has appeared in the MCU from the beginning. He was a faithful companion to Tony and morally beyond reproach. His friendship with Iron Man was so fundamental that the latter lashed out vengefully at Sam (Anthony Mackie) for his role in Rhodey’s paralysis inCivil War. To Feige’s credit, making him a Skrull inSecret Invasionis a wound that cuts the deepest. The only person who would be even more heart-wrenching as a Skrull would be Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
But since he retired with no signs of returning as Captain America, Marvel Studios had to settle for the second-best thing. Compromising Rhodey threw the MCU into a dark abyss where the morally good have no chance of survival. The only ones left standing are the likes of Nick Fury. And Talos' devastating death inSecret Invasionepisode 4makes it feel even worse.
