Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Series Casts ‘One Night In Miami’ Star Kingsley Ben-Adir To Play The Main Villain
On the heels his breakout turn inOne Night in Miami,Kingsley Ben-Adirhas been cast in Marvel’s upcomingSecret Invasionseries on Disney+. He’ll be joiningSamuel L. Jackson, reprising his role as Nick Fury, andBen Mendelsohn, who brings back his Skrull character Talos fromCaptain Marvel.
Kingsley Ben-Adir is going from playing Malcolm X to playing a Marvel villain. TheOne Night in Miamistar, who turned ina tremendous, stirring performanceas the Civil Rights leader in Regina King’s directorial debut, has been cast in the Marvel seriesSecret Invasion, according to Deadline.
While character details are being kept under wraps for Ben-Adir’s role, sources tell both Deadline andVarietythat he will be playing the main villain of the six-episode series. Who could that lead villain be? Who knows!
There is, of course, a rich Marvel rogues gallery from whichSecret Invasioncould pull, but the Disney+ series seemingly shakes things up a bit from the comic book storyline of the same name. The Marvel Comics’Secret Invasionwas a massive crossover event that chronicled the slow invasion of shapeshifting alien Skrulls, who posed as Avengers for years, setting the stage for many twists and betrayals. It featured big-names like Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and more. Marvel’s Disney+ series will be significantly smaller-scale, simply “tapping into the paranoia elements of theSecret Invasioncomic series that was great with the twists and turns that that took,” perMarvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. That, and the twist would have to be significantly changed, as Mendelsohn’s Talos and the Skrulls inCaptain Marvelwere revealed to be benign aliens who used their shapeshifting abilities out of desperation — and to give Fury a much-neededspace vacation. Instead, theSecret Invasionseries will follow “a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years.”
So it’s likely that Ben-Adir will play one of these Skrulls who have waging the long invasion. As for which Skrull, I’m sure that we will find that out at a later date. And while it’s a shame that such an expressive and emotive actor will have to be hidden underneath layers of prosthetics, it’s exciting that Ben-Adir has earned as much attention as he has, and is already set to make his blockbuster (of a sort) debut.
