‘Secret Invasion’ Director Provides Incoherent Explanation As To Why A Female Skrull Impersonated James Rhodes

John F. Trent |

Aug 1, 2023

Secret Invasion director Ali Selim provided an incoherent explanation as to why a female Skrull impersonated James Rhodes in the Disney+ series.

In the series it is revealed that James Rhodes was being impersonated by the female Skrull Raava and was attempting to orchestrate a nuclear war between the United States and Russia at the behest of the Skrull Resistance leader Gravik.

In an interview with Variety, Selim confirmed that the Skrulls had kidnapped Rhodes following the events of Captain America: Civil War.

Variety’s Angelique Jackson would then ask him, “What was it like working with Don on developing the deviations between Raava and “Rhodey” as he played them both?”

Selim responded, “A lot of that is Don Cheadle’s brilliant sense of logic, specificity and acting prowess. The Raava thing was just simply, there was a point in the beginning where we were designing the Skrulls and we made the comment ‘Would a Skrull pick a human that had its facial features?’ If I looked a little bit like this as a Skrull, why would I go into hiding and find a human like that looked kind of like me?”

“So, we deviated from that and said, what we have to do is really show that, in a lot of instances, these people are hiding out in a human shell, and they’re going to pick a completely different race, a different age, and why not a different gender? Why couldn’t a female Skrull become a male [human]? And that’s where that came from — let’s just be smart about how they’re going into hiding,” he said.

(L-R): Charlayne Woodard as Priscilla Davis/Tarna and Emilia Clarke as G'iah in Marvel Studios' SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

Despite Selim’s comments, the series reveals that the Skrull Resistance members are assigned shells by the leadership. In the first episode of the series, a seemingly newly inducted recruit Brogan is assigned a “shell” by Pagon. Pagon commands Brogan to take his face and then to take his mind. Brogan does both.

Not only are Skrull Resistance members assigned shells, but nearly all of the other Skrulls take on the gender and age of the humans they are impersonating. Emilia Clarke’s G’iah is a young female. Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos is a middle-aged man. Nick Fury’s wife Varra is an older woman. Gravik is a young male.

As for this idea that they would pick different genders and ages compared to them, it doesn’t even make sense. It would be much easier to blend in on Earth by taking on people that are similar in age and gender given the Skrulls apparently behave similarly to humans. It is much more difficult to pretend to be someone of a different age and gender than it is to be someone of your own age and gender.

Obviously, this negates the mind meld that the Skrull Resistance performs on the humans they kidnapped. This would only apply to humans they simply shapeshifted into rather than mind melded.

Regardless, the fact that the show matches up the Skrulls with humans of their same age and gender except for Rhodes calls into question Selim’s commentary. In fact, the show’s depiction of Skrulls and the humans they copy makes Selim’s commentary incoherent.

This leads one to believe that having a female Skrull impersonate Rhodes was not done as Selim states, but was done for some other ulterior purpose. The most obvious is they wanted to promote transgenderism, an evil ideology that actor Don Cheadle vociferously supports. However, given the fact that it’s not overt, it’s possible it was toned down due to the backlash Bud Light is facing as well as the one that Marvel Studios’ parent company is facing due to its meddling in Florida politics.

Kingsley Ben-Adir as Rebel Skrull leaer Gravik in Marvel Studios' SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

Not only does Selim make an incoherent argument about why a female Skrull impersonated Rhodes, but he also revealed the entire theme of the series was the other.

He was asked, “Now that the series finale has aired, how would you describe “Secret Invasion’s” overall message? Is there a particular scene from the finale that underlines that for you?”

Selim answered, “The theme that interested me in these scripts and in this story was the theme of other. How do we confront the other in our neighborhood? How do we confront the other in ourselves? How do we reconcile love that doesn’t seem to fit into a socially acceptable box? Sam Jackson and I had a lot of conversations about that; Kingsley Ben-Adir and I had a lot of conversations about that.”

“Ultimately, the scene that I pushed for and really enjoyed is when Nick Fury kisses Varra at the end. That is releasing the sense of ‘other’ in himself that has been a constraint or a prejudice. It’s opening up the world to conversation, if not all out love and embracing. It’s the very last scene of the series, and it really feels like that’s what it’s about,” he added.

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Charlayne Woodard as Varra in Secret Invasion (2023), Marvel Studios

What do you make of Selim’s explanation about why they had a female Skrull pose as Rhodes? What do you make of his revelation that the theme of the show is the other?

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