When does “Secret Invasion” play and where are the Avengers? Director Ali Selim tells us!

As with pretty much all MCU movies and series after “Avengers: Endgame,” the question arises again with “Secret Invasion”: When is the new Marvel series actually set? Obviously, “Secret Invasion” must play after 1995’s “Captain Marvel” and after “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” because this is where Soren, the wife of Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), still lived. However, in Secret Invasion, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to Earth because Soren has died and he wants to help his friend Talos.

Secret Invasion is also on Disney+ sorted as chronologically newest MCU entry*, so after “Ant-Man And The Wasp Quantumania”. But what exactly does that mean for timing in the MCU and in “Secret Invasion”? We asked director Ali Selim about it and also wanted to know where the Avengers are right now:

Ali Selim: “Secret Invasion” is set in 2023 and as far as I know, the Avengers in the MCU more or less unofficially disbanded in 2014. So Nick hasn’t had access to the Avengers since the blip and his absence [seinem Urlaub im Weltall]. But that also helps the story: this is Nick Fury’s story and it’s good that he’s alone. The absence of the Avengers makes him a gunfighter like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. It puts him in the spotlight.

“Secret Invasion” in 2023 – is that possible?

So Secret Invasion is set in 2023 – after all, a very interesting reveal many fan theories assume that the current action in the MCU has now arrived in the year 2025/2026. But that doesn’t mean “Secret Invasion” is stepping back in time — after all, according to these fan theories, the aforementioned “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is set in 2024, so something doesn’t add up.

is more likely that Ali Selim’s statement refers to the official, internal Marvel timeline, which differs from the fan-curated timeline. You may find the book Marvel Timelines: The Visual Chronicle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe useful in October 2023 in English* and will release in German in November 2023 and should finally make the timing in the MCU official.

But back to the interview, because of course we asked Ali Selim not only about the timeline and the Avengers, but also about other topics, such as the countless surprises in the series and working with Samuel L. Jackson on set:

Retcons & surprises

Ali Selim: I think you should rather do that [MCU-Architekt] Ask Kevin Feige. We had many meetings about questions like “How many Skrulls live on Earth?”, “How long have they been here?” and “Where exactly does this story take place?”. But when it comes to big MCU questions like this, I have to look at Kevin Feige and [die Produzenten] Brad Winderbaum and Jonathan Schwartz leave.

In these six episodes I tell a story and I do my best to make the audience understand that story. If people bring something from the MCU that makes the story better, that’s great. But if they need anything from the MCU to make the story make sense, then I haven’t done my job.

Ali Selim: Yes that’s right. So I got the scripts from [Chefautor] Kyle Bradstreet achieved. And I think that’s a brilliant way to start the story. Stories like this have to start with a bang, with a chase and a reveal and the big question of what’s going on here.

I think backstory is only necessary if it’s interesting. If we had started the story in 1995 and then told it chronologically to the year 2023, the process would have been very uneven. I think the structure is brilliant, especially thanks to the actors. Martin Freeman and Richard Dormer really set the tone and pace in this first episode.

Ali Selim: It’s hard for an actor not to have a feel for the character and the story. I don’t see this as improvisation or spontaneous ideas. In my opinion, it is simply a good collaboration to tell the story as well and as completely as possible.

He’s a total professional, he’s worked with the very best, and he’s known this character for many, many years. So when he came up with new dialogue or storyline ideas during rehearsals, I always just saw that as contributing to the story.

The first episode “Secret Invasion” was released on June 21, 2023 on Disney+. Each week there are more episodes on Wednesday, so the next one will be out on June 28.