Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has signed on to join Secret Invasion, the latest Marvel series for Disney+. Variety broke the story, saying that the actress was in final negotiations to work with everybody’s favorite green shape-shifters, the Skrulls. What role she’s playing in the titular invasion is, fittingly enough, a secret. Clarke joins a host of castmates both rumored and confirmed. Marvel said Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn will reprise their Captain Marvel frenemy duo, Nick Fury and Talos.
Clarke is joining her fellow GoT vets Kit Harington and Richard Madden in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both fellas have been cast in The Eternals, which is slated to premiere November 5, 2021. And since everything is connected in the MCU, a reunion between the extended Stark-Targaryen clan isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Meanwhile, Deadline reported that One Night in Miami star Kingsley Ben-Adir will play a leading villain role in the show, and Variety said Oscar winner Olivia Colman is in talks to join the cast as well. Colman’s role on the show is under wraps, but she’d previously told Vulture that she’s always wanted to play a Marvel baddie. “I’m not sure I fit the mold, though,†she said. “Somebody with superpowers would be really fun, but I’m not sure how many middle-aged women they have in Marvel.†The cool thing about Skrulls is that a superpowered baddie can be shaped like anything.
Secret Invasion was announced last year, along with a mess of other Marvel shows coming to Disney+. The show gets its name from the comic-book crossover event, in which the Skrulls invaded Earth. The Skrulls have been portrayed more sympathetically within the MCU, so it will be interesting to see who the real baddies are in the Disney+ series.