Gianna Pacilio (‘22)
Spoiler alert, this article has spoilers from Spiderman Far from Home and Captain Marvel.
In the 2019 Marvel film, Captain Marvel, audiences were introduced to a new species called Skrulls, who are shapeshifters that live in space. Far-fetched, but the complications that they brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe are endless.
Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, left Earth to help the Skrulls at the end of Captain Marvel, and went into space with Brie Larson’s character Carol Danvers. Despite his departure, Fury was seen in Spiderman: Far From Home later on. In this film, however, viewers see SHIELD’s Agent Hill refer to Nick Fury as Nick, while in Captain Marvel he declares that no one ever calls him Nick, they only call him Fury. Nick Fury was also seen in Avengers: Endgame eating diagonally cut toast at Hawkeye’s house, which he claimed he would never eat in Captain Marvel. This leads some audiences to believe that this was really a Skrull, whether it be Talos (Captain Marvel’s villain turned ally) or another Skrull.
Captain Marvel took place in the 1990s, while Spiderman: Far From Home took place in the present, after Avengers: Endgame. It was never shown that Nick Fury returned from space. Considering this timeline, this could mean that Nick Fury never returned from space, and that in each movie Nick Fury has appeared in, he has actually been a Skrull.
In Captain Marvel, Danvers tells audiences that when Skrulls shapeshift, they take on the person’s DNA sequences, so there is no way to tell the difference until the Skrull dies and takes its original form. This was seen in Captain Marvel, when Jude Law’s character Yon-Rogg killed a Skrull that shapeshifted into the body of Carol Danvers.
The even more complicated aspect of this is that the Skrulls could literally be any of the characters, not just Nick Fury. It is almost impossible to answer the question: Which characters are actually in the films? Any of the characters could actually be in space while a Skrull takes their place. The possibilities are endless.
Junior and Marvel enthusiast Jordan Rosenberg said, “If Nick Fury is a Skrull, it’ll help further the plot and help bring in the Secret Invasion plot from the comics. I think that some other agents at SHIELD might be Skrulls because they are working with Nick―or Talos. I also think Nick Fury is in space helping Captain Marvel.”
As Jordan said, this question will most likely be clarified in Marvel’s upcoming 2022 series Secret Invasion, a show dedicated to the Skrull invasion of earth. But until 2022, fans are left hoping for a satisfying plot line and an answer to the question: Has Nick Fury been a Skrull all along?