Secret Invasion director Ali Selim has answered one of the show's biggest questions – if Rhodey (Don Cheadle) has been a Skrull this whole time, when, exactly, did we lose the real Rhodey?
"I think his legs not working in the end of episode 6 and him being in the hospital gown points to [Captain America: Civil War]," Selim told ComicBook.com. "And, from there, does it have to be definitive, or is it more fun for the audience to go back and revisit every moment, every Rhodey moment, and look at it with a different lens now that they think, 'Oh, he might've been a Skrull there.' And make the decision for themselves, or it'll be answered in Armor Wars."
This means that the real Rhodey wasn't in either Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame, and he won't have any knowledge of the Blip, Tony Stark's death, or the fact that Sam Wilson, not Steve Rogers, is now Captain America. Secret Invasion viewers aren't too happy with this reveal and its impact on the MCU, either.
"If Rhodes was swapped by a Skrull after Civil War, it would be a direct contradiction to the rule Secret Invasion establishes where when a Skrull is wounded, it starts to shapeshift back into its original form, and that its blood is purple," one Reddit user pointed out.
"I really dread seeing where they go with this. Cheadle was acting SO not like Rhodey in this series that it's impossible to imagine that it's the same person we've seen in any other appearance," said another. "While it would make the entire series feel even more pointless than it has, making Rhodey be a Skrull at any point before [Falcon and the Winter Soldier] would be a huge disappointment because of how poorly they executed the whole thing."
The season finale, which aired this past Wednesday (July 26), wasn't a hit with critics and received the lowest-ever Rotten Tomatoes score for an episode of an MCU show. The series starred Samuel L. Jackson as MCU veteran Nick Fury, who comes up against a band of renegade shapeshifting Skrulls, led by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Their goal is to destabilize global politics before stepping in to impersonate powerful world leaders and infiltrate Earth from the inside.
All six episodes of Secret Invasion are streaming now on Disney Plus. Next up for Marvel, though, is Loki season 2, which arrives on October 6 – make sure you're up to date on the MCU by then with our guides to Marvel Phase 5 and Marvel Phase 6.
