Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Director Admits He Does Not Care About Series’ Poor Fan Reception: “Is It Our Job To Fulfill Their Expectations? Or To Tell The Story That We’re Telling?”
Spencer Baculi
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Despite the resoundingly negative response to the Skrull-based series, Marvel’s Secret Invasion director Ali Selim has admitted that he has does not “feel bad” about the show’s poor reception, particularly as he believes the “devoted – even rabid” nature of the franchise’s fanbase does not lend itself to productive discussions around its various entries.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.
Between its ‘Jake Skywalker’-ing of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, its introduction of Emilia Clarke’s G’iah as the literal ‘strongest MCU hero ever‘, and its absolute wasting of the original, eponymous comic book storyline – one of Marvel Comics’ last good stories and whose original plot could have easily lent itself to a full ‘MCU Phase’ if done properly – Secret Invasion has been nothing short of a disaster for the reputation of the once-esteemed cinematic universe.
As of writing, per review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series currently holds a disastrous 55% ‘Rotten’ rating among both critics and general audiences.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion via Rotten Tomatoes
Most notably, the series’ first season finale – in which Clarke’s G’iah is revealed to possess an overwhelming majority of the current superpowers available in the MCU and very few overall plot threads are resolved in favor of enticing audiences to see The Marvels – currently holds an absolutely abysmal 8% Rotten Tomatoes score, with even such normally ‘MCU favorable’ sites as CBR, The AV Club, and The Daily Beast absolutely excoriating the episode’s disappointing direction.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 6 “Home” via Rotten Tomatoes
While the series currently holds a collective critic score of 63 on sister review aggregator Metacritic, it should be noted that this ranking appears to be based solely on early reviews of the series’ first episode rather than the full season.
Conversely, in regards to audience scores, 78 Metacritic user reviews have left Secret Invasion with a 3.6 across 78 reviews.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion via Metacritic
RELATED: ‘Secret Invasion’ Premiere Viewership Fails To Break Into Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Programs
Yet, despite these scores leaving Secret Invasion as the fifth-most-panned entry in the MCU (coming in behind Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel’s Iron Fist, and Marvel’s Inhumans), this reception has apparently left the aforementioned Selim unphased.
Asked during a post-finale interview with Variety’s Angelique Jackson for his thoughts on the series’ cratering reviews, Selim revealed, “Oh, I don’t read reviews.”
“With all due respect,” he explained. “For me, I view all the storytelling work I do as a dialogue with an audience. When the show is finished and put up on the screen, that’s my half of the dialogue. And the audience then starts their half of the response to it. I think that’s valuable, but I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer the question.”
Emilia Clarke as G’iah in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
“I don’t feel bad about mixed reviews,” Selim then posited. “If you had unanimously good reviews, every movie would gross $10 billion, trillion dollars, right?”
“[Projects] resonate with different people at different times for different reasons, and Marvel has a very devoted — even rabid — fan base who have expectations and when their expectations aren’t fulfilled, they move in the other direction; they give it a thumbs down,” the director concluded. “I don’t know — is it our job to fulfill their expectations? Or to tell the story that we’re telling? So, it’s a tricky thing. I would love it if everybody loved it, but I also don’t have that expectation myself, so I feel great about the response to it.”
Kingsley Ben-Adir as Rebel Skrull leader Gravik in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
For the three people still interested, the dangling plot threads left unresolved by the end of Secret Invasion will supposedly be addressed on November 10th when The Marvels crashes into theaters.
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