Secret Invasion's production appears to have been anything but secretive. The upcoming Marvel TV series has been hit by a number of leaks throughout its development, and that information hasn't just come from apparent insiders.
What's the latest on the Marvel Phase 4 project , then? Where would you like us to start? Samuel L Jackson, who reprises his role as Nick Fury, has confirmed that an Avenger and a Black Panther actor will guest star in the Disney Plus show. Meanwhile, online speculation suggests that filming has moved to Canada for a short spell, the MCU's new US President has seemingly been revealed, and Secret Invasion may lead into future Marvel movies including Ant-Man 3 and The Marvels. Hey, we did say there was plenty to catch you up on.
Below, you'll find even more information about Secret Invasion. We've compiled the latest on its potential release date, all-star cast, possible plot, and more. Potential spoilers follow for Secret Invasion , as well as spoilers for the Secret Invasion comic series, and future MCU films and TV shows .
Secret Invasion release date: what we know
Secret Invasion doesn’t have an official release date. When it was first announced, it was expected that it would release sometime in 2022. Marvel Studios’ Japanese language website even suggested as much (thanks to The Cosmic Circus for the catch), with Secret Invasion part of the website’s 2022 movie and TV show line-up.
Since The Cosmic Circus’ initial report, though, Secret Invasion has been removed from the Japanese language site’s 2022 slate. It’s unclear if this means the series won’t debut this year, or that Marvel is giving itself some wriggle room over the show’s release date.
Right now, the latter seems more likely. Secret Invasion only entered production in the UK in September 2021, with numerous social media posts confirming that filming has taken place in Leeds, London, and Halifax. Additional footage is expected to be shot across Europe (per The Hollywood Reporter ) at a later date. Meanwhile, the Midgard Times has suggested that some scenes will be filmed in Canada, too.
It’s possible that Secret Invasion could make its rumored late 2022 launch window. Filming has been going on for over six months so, despite the ongoing pandemic, we suspect that there’s plenty of footage in the can. And, according to Marvel leaker Charles Murphy, filming was nearly done in late January. That is, unless principal photography has moved to Canada in the meantime.
Even so, Secret Invasion will require a lengthy post-production process once filming wraps. That could take months, providing that reshoots aren’t necessary and other possible hitches don’t get in the way. If they do, we wouldn’t expect to see Secret Invasion released before early 2023. But we’d be happy if we’re proven wrong.
Secret Invasion cast: who is playing who?
Secret Invasion's cast is all-but-confirmed at this point, but there's no word on who most of them will be playing:
Jackson will reprise his role as ex-SHIELD director Nick Fury – a character he's played since 2008's Iron Man – in Secret Invasion. He was last seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Fury was enjoying a vacation onboard a Skrull spaceship.
It’s unclear how Secret Invasion ties into his last on-screen appearance, but we do know that he’ll have a new look in the TV series. As we saw in Marvel’s Disney Plus Day show reel in November 2021, Fury will be sporting a gray beard and will no longer be wearing his eye patch:
Fury will be joined by Ben Mendolsohn’s Talos and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill. Talos was also seen in Far From Home, disguising himself as Fury to help Spider-Man stop Mysterio. Hill, meanwhile, hasn’t been in a Marvel project since Avengers: Endgame. Well, technically she hasn’t – Smulders ‘reprised’ her role as the ex-SHIELD deputy director in Far From Home, too. But, like Talos who was masquerading as Fury, she was being impersonated by Soren, Talos’ wife.
Meanwhile, Jackson has seemingly confirmed that Don Cheadle and Martin Freeman will reprise their roles as James Rhodes/War Machine and Everett K Ross in Secret Invasion. Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast , Jackson said: "How amazing is that [to have Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman involved]? We also have Martin Freeman... you walk on the set, Emilia’s amazing… Ben Mendelsohn, he’s awesome. Don, Don Cheadle. I got Don, that’s my golf buddy. I didn’t realize it, but til we did this thing, I was like, ‘We’ve never worked together.’ We just kinda know each other, hang out and laugh… but we’d never worked together and we finally [got to work together]."
Murphy's Multiverse had previously suggested Cheadle would appear in Secret Invasion, but Jackson's comments confirm that Rhodey will appear in the show, just like he did in Falcon and the Winter Soldier .
We also know who will be playing the President of the United States in Secret Invasion, too. Dermot Mulroney (Hanna, The Purge) is said to be portraying President Ritson, according to an image snapped by Instagram user the_insta_phils (thanks to ComicBookom for the catch). Skip to the fourth image in the Instagram link to see the confirmation.
Other cast members’ roles are undisclosed, but there are plenty of rumors about who they’re playing.
Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) is reportedly playing a spy with powers (per Charles Murphy ). Many fans believe she will portray Abigail Brand, the Commander of SWORD – a counter-terrorism organization that specifically deals with extra-terrestrial threats in the comics. However, prominent MCU leaker MyTimetoShineHello has claimed that Clarke is playing a Skrull called Veranke, who is queen of the Skrull empire.
In a chat with Entertainment Weekly , Clarke joked that she was “scared” of revealing anything about her character due to the secrecy that surrounds Marvel projects these days.
Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Lost Daughter) is also said to be playing a “major player” with a “Fury-esque” presence. (per Charles Murphy ). That description has fans buzzing that Colman may portray Veranke, queen of the Skrull Empire, although MyTimetoShineHello's recent claim suggests this may not be the case after all.
Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami) is rumored to be playing the series’ lead villain (per Deadline ). There are no clues regarding his character’s identity, but Ben-Adir will reportedly play a Skrull who has risen through the empire’s ranks to be a prominent leader in its hierarchy. Not only that but, according to the Secret Invasion News Twitter fan account, he’ll physically go toe-to-toe with Jackson’s Fury at some point.
As for other supporting cast members, Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore) is playing a Fox News-style anchor in the mould of Tucker Carlson (per Secret Invasion News ). Killian Scott (Ripper Street, Love/Hate) will reportedly portray a Skrull called Fiz (via The Direct ), while Carmen Ejogo ( Fantastic Beasts , Your Honor) has been cast in an undisclosed role. Russian actor Irina Kara (Psycho) was also spotted on the Secret Invasion set (thanks to Reddit for the tip) but, again, nobody knows what her role entails.
Finally, one character who won’t be involved is Daisy Johnson/Quake, who was portrayed by Chloe Bennet in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD TV show – a series that has no ties to the MCU. Given Johnson’s prominent role in the Secret Invasion comic series, some fans wondered if Bennet’s Johnson may cross over into the MCU and be part of the show’s cast. Bennet has since denied her involvement in Secret Invasion in an Instagram story video (thanks to the Daily Bennet Twitter fan account for the catch).
Secret Invasion plot: what's the story about?
Here’s a brief synopsis taken from the show’s entry on the Disney Plus Originals website : “Secret Invasion is a newly announced series heading to Disney Plus. The crossover comic event series showcases a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years.”
Not much to go on, then. One thing we do know, however, is that Secret Invasion’s live-action adaptation won’t be as large as the comics that inspired it. Chatting to ComicBookom in January 2021, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that Secret Invasion would be smaller in scope than the comics, adding: “There were more characters in the comic series than there were in Endgame so, no [it won’t be bigger in scope].”
Given the series’ major players, we’re expecting Secret Invasion to be a continuation of the story from Captain Marvel – released in March 2019 – and Spider-Man: Far From Home, the final Marvel Phase 3 flick that arrived in July 2019. Both movies involved the Skrulls to varying degrees, so it’s unsurprising that these two films act as the jumping-off point for Secret Invasion.
Interestingly, Secret Invasion was initially rumored to be in development as a movie, before it was turned into a Disney Plus series. Speaking to Collider in January 2021, Feige said the “political paranoia” of Secret Invasion was something Marvel had wanted to explore for a long time. Marvel’s head honcho went on to add: “We wanted to do a series because it would allow us to do something different than we’ve seen before.”
So it sounds like we’ll be getting an espionage thriller series in Secret Invasion in the mould of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie. That stands to reason, given that some of its cast are rumored to be playing spies. Expect plenty of action and explosions – which we suspect adversarial Skrulls will carry out – too, based on unofficial images and on-set videos that have been posted online.
Some scenes shot in the UK may be acting as stand-ins for fictional Russian locations, too. Leaked photographs appear to show one set, at Leeds’ Piece Hall, being used as the backdrop for National Unity Day, an annual Russian public holiday. So Secret Invasion could be a globetrotting adventure – as well as an extra-terrestrial one – for Fury, Talos and company.
Given the Skrulls’ ability to shapeshift, we could see other MCU characters make cameo appearances in Secret Invasion. The comic series revealed that some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were, in fact, Skrulls who had been masquerading as superheroes for years.
It sounds like this story thread could be carried over into the show. According to prominent Marvel leaker MyTimeToShineHello, there will be “ some superheroes ” who turn up in the series. Could one of them be Rhodey's War Machine? Place your bets on who could appear.
Finally, we know that Secret Invasion will comprise six episodes, which follows other MCU Disney Plus shows, including Loki , in having six entries.
Secret Invasion trailer: is there one?
No, and there won’t be for a long time. We’ll update this section when we receive one.
Secret Invasion: how will it affect the MCU?
As mentioned, Secret Invasion will continue the storylines from Captain Marvel and Far From Home. It’ll also pick up events from WandaVision , which saw Monica Rambeau/Photon (Teyonah Parris) approached by a Skrull in the Disney Plus show’s finale. The unnamed Skrull told Rambeau that a friend of her mother wanted to meet Monica, and many fans have predicted that this “friend” is Nick Fury.
This plot point wasn’t resolved by the series’ end, so it’s possible that Rambeau could make a cameo appearance in Secret Invasion. We already know that Rambeau will have a major role to play in The Marvels alongside Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel , but it would be fun to see her turn up in Secret Invasion, too.
Secret Invasion should impact other future MCU projects as well. During Marvel’s presentation at Disney’s 2020 Investor Day (via Mashable ), Feige revealed that Secret Invasion would tie directly into upcoming MCU movies. As we said, The Marvels may be one, but others including Ant-Man 3 and Fantastic Four could also be affected.
And it seems we were right on some of those guesses. Jackson has heavily teased that Nick Fury will guest star in The Marvels, plus Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It seems, then, that Secret Invasion could be far more important for the MCU moving forward than we realize.
When is someone going to make a gaming phone for adults?
Mobile gaming is big business whichever you look at it. Games played on smartphones represent half of all global gaming revenue, according to Statista , beating traditional console gaming into a distant second place.
Given the vast popularity of mobile gaming, then, why does the market for gaming phones feel like such a niche concern? Why does the gaming phone market only seem to target a particular type of young, brash audience?
What I’m really trying to ascertain is, when will someone make a gaming phone for adults like me?
Boring old me
I am what many would consider a fairly typical example of a British male who came of age at the turn of the millennium. Crushingly, boringly ‘normal,’ if there is such a thing.
I’m fortunate enough to have a full-time job and a house. I’m married. I choose to spend my spare time and income on films, gigs, and restaurants. I play football and go to the pub. I also happen to enjoy playing video games, and have a keen interest (both personal and professional) in smartphone technology.
You might think I’d be right in the center of the Venn diagram marked ‘gaming phone target audience.’ But while I’ve used, reviewed, and enjoyed several gaming phones through my work as a freelance tech and games writer, I wouldn’t dream of buying a device for myself.
And I’d be deeply surprised if many people in a broadly similar situation felt significantly different.
What we mean when we talk about gaming phones
Let’s back up a bit. If you pay only a moderate amount of interest to the wider smartphone scene, or perhaps only play games on a casual basis, you may not even realize there is such a thing as a ‘gaming phone.’ So let’s pinpoint exactly what that term means.
Gaming phones are smartphones that are targeted specifically at gamers - or a particular subset of gamers, at least. They tend to supply flagship or near-flagship specifications in a design that favors extended landscape-oriented media consumption over general day-to-day tasks. They’re generally big and bulky, with bespoke cooling systems that can even incorporate physical fans.
A decent gaming phone’s display will generally be more responsive than that of even a regular flagship phone. For example, the Nubia Red Magic 6S Pro has a display with a 720Hz touch sampling rate, which is literally twice as responsive as that of the OnePlus 9 Pro. And believe me when I say that the latter is not even remotely sluggish.
Meanwhile, non-gaming-related elements like the camera are given much lower priority in a gaming phone. The likes of the Lenovo Legion Duel 2 and the Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro tend to take mediocre pictures at best, despite costing hundreds s and boasting otherwise exemplary specifications.
A common signifier of gaming phones is the provision of additional physical controls, which tend to take the form of side or rear-mounted buttons (either physical or capacitive) that can be remapped on a game-by-game basis. This grants a considerable advantage in competitive online games such as League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty Mobile .
Such devices invariably run on Android due to the greater freedom for customization that Google’s platform affords. Gaming phone manufacturers have free rein to create custom UIs and gaming overlays that provide quick access to CPU and GPU modes, do-not-disturb settings, cooling modes, and RGB lighting.
Which brings me to the core of my argument.
Flash player
In addition to their inherent unwieldiness, modern gaming phones tend to meld a curious ‘gamer aesthetic’ into their chunky designs. Such devices are big on bulky sci-fi swooshes and aggressive logos, and they often incorporate RGB lighting.
While your average phone manufacturer has had to fight tooth and nail for every inch and ampere of space and battery resources, gaming phone makers will choose to whack in a strip of plastic that can output all the colors of the rainbow at once.
If this sounds juvenile and wasteful, well, it IS. Deeply so.
Such an aesthetic seems to share some commonality with a certain strand of PC gaming, and shares links to esports and competitive game streaming. Again, this is a heavily subscribed corner of gaming culture, but it’s not for everyone.
And this really brings home my problem with gaming phones. For someone not remotely invested in that particular sub-strand of gaming culture, gaming phones strike me as crass and impractical.
Beyond that, for someone of a certain vintage and sensibility, or who has friends and colleagues who aren’t exclusively (or even mostly) hardcore gamers, pulling out such a device in public can be flat-out embarrassing.
Okay, boomer
I can hear the response. “okay, boomer, stop whining about the flashing lights and go back to your stuffy old iPhone.”
First up: thanks, I will. My personal iPhone 13 Pro is a great gaming device, with performance potential that trounces any dedicated gaming phone and an App Store that’s filled with loads of great games.
But also, I’d appreciate the option of a great phone that happens to prioritize gaming. One that doesn’t shirk on basic smartphone design and usability principles, or even simple considerations of good taste. One that doesn’t mean I have to forego taking pictures in anything less than optimal lighting if I want a set of physical gaming controls.
Why can’t I have a phone with the sleek looks and all-around competence of a Sony Xperia 1 III , but instead of physical camera shutter and Google Assistant buttons, it gives me a pair of shoulder buttons for mapping to my favorite shooter?
Or why can’t I have a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with no selfie notch (the bane of mobile gaming) and a slightly thicker body containing a bigger battery and a meatier cooling system?
This isn’t to single out Sony and Samsung, you understand. The simple truth is, no one is making these phones right now, at least not on a global scale.
Reaching the next level
I don’t think that such a request is unreasonable. There have been gaming phones in the past that offered something broadly similar.
Anyone remember the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play ? This so-called ‘PlayStation Phone’ was a solid Android handset that was considered pretty sleek and stylish for its day. It also happened to have a slide-out set of gaming controls and a game-focused UI for a Sony PSP-approximating portable gaming experience.
Or, prior to that, there was the Nokia N95 feature phone, which used its slide-out physical controls and Nokia’s dedicated N-Gage gaming platform to produce a pleasingly discrete gaming machine.
Both of these devices and their associated platforms had their flaws, and neither was an unqualified success as a gaming device. It’s fair to say that the path to gaming phone glory is littered with failures.
But the broad thrust of providing a regular phone with a potent gaming trick up its sleeve still holds a lot of appeal to me. And, I suspect, to many others too.
The closest thing I’ve seen to what I’m after recently is the iQoo 7 Legend. This phone from a Vivo sub-brand is a sleek, modern flagship with strong all-around specs and a svelte design. It also adopts an overt gaming angle, complete with super-responsive touch sampling rate, an advanced cooling system, and a two-part pressure-sensitive display that can be mapped to a game’s existing touch controls.
It’s far from perfect, with a pokey battery and a distracting hole-punch display, and it’s not even available in the West at the time of writing. But it confirms that I’m not the only one thinking along these lines, and that such a balance of all-around poise and gaming chops is possible to achieve in a single phone.
The question is, which smartphone manufacturers (if any) will pick up this baton and go global with a gaming phone for adults in 2022?
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: what we want to see
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 was released in April 2021, and though it’s an excellent machine in its own right, some might claim it’s more of a refresh of the Surface Laptop 3 than a new machine in its own right.
But with the Surface Laptop 5 more likely releasing sometime in 2022, it’s an opportunity for Microsoft to introduce new features and updates that would make the Laptop 5 feel like a true upgrade in its own right.
Cut to the chase
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 release date
While there hasn’t been any official Surface Laptop 5 news yet, Microsoft has been incredibly diligent with this series, judging by the usual release schedule of roughly one Surface Laptop every year since the first one came out in 2017.
Within that yearly release schedule, the Surface Laptop series has a more erratic release window, ranging from spring to fall in the US. But in the last few years, that date has become far more predictably in the fall – which makes sense for a device meant for schoolwork. So, the Surface Laptop 5 will probably launch no later than late 2022, but that’s just speculation on our part.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 price
The Surface Laptop series hits the mid-range market, with prices that usually start around $1000 USD but rarely surpass the $2000 USD mark.
For instance, the starting price for the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 4 starts at $999 (£999, AU$1,599), which includes an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Meanwhile, the 15-inch configuration starts at $1,299 (£1,299, AU$2,199) and starts with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It’s likely that Microsoft will keep the Surface Laptop 5 around the same price when it launches.
However, given the continued silicon shortage, we could see Microsoft slightly increase the price. We’ll just have to wait until Microsoft unveils the Surface Laptop 5.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: What we want to see
There are plenty of improvements that could be made to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5. As previously stated, a major issue with the series of laptops feel like mere rehashes of the previous model instead of the significantly upgraded versions they should be.
120Hz refresh rate and Surface Pen support The Laptop series still uses 60Hz display panels, while both the Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Pro 8 have already been updated to 120Hz. Higher refresh rates are primarily used in gaming, but also allow for smooth web browsing and even makes navigating the desktop smoother. A 120Hz refresh rate would be an excellent addition for the Surface Laptop 5.
As a bonus, bringing the 120Hz display in the Surface Pro 8 to the Surface Laptop 5 means that it could also receive haptic feedback support for the Surface Pen.
More USB ports One of our biggest Surface Laptop 4 complaints is the lack of ports. For instance, the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, compared to the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 with only one USB-C port and one USB-A 3.0 port. The Surface Laptop 4 is just as bad with one Surface Connect port on the right, one USB-C, one USB-A, and a headphone jack.
If the Laptop 5 came with at least one Thunderbolt port (preferably two), as well as a USB-C port and a USB-A 3.0 port, that would already be a huge improvement. Microsoft finally added Thunderbolt support with its latest devices, too, so we can actually see this happening.
Smaller bezels The Laptop series is still behind in bezel size, as it hasn’t changed since the initial 2017 model. For the Laptop 5, Microsoft should consider making the bezels thinner as it would increase the screen size.
Considering that the Laptop series is made for office professionals who are currently working remotely, the extra real estate would greatly improve the work-at-home experience. Even the Surface Pro 8 received a slimmer bezel in 2021, which means that the Laptop 5 is overdue as well.
Improved webcam Unlike the Surface Pro, which has supported 1080p webcams for years, the Surface Laptop still uses a 720p webcam. In a time where remote work using video calls for meetings has become the norm for office workers, the Surface Laptop 5 needs to upgrade to a 1080p sensor.