New Secret Invasion Trailer Teases Arrival of Major Fantastic Four Villain

Ever since Disney bought Fox, even the most ardent antitrust adherent has looked forward to the MCU debut of the greatest Fantastic Four villain, Doctor Doom. But as great as Victor Von Doom certainly is, he’s hardly the only great baddie in the First Family’s antagonist roster. Over the years, the FF has gone up against the evil alchemist Diablo, the terrifying Puppet Master, and Blastaar, a lion-man who terrorizes the Negative Zone in a pair of black leather hotpants. But the Disney+ Secret Invasion series may bring in one of the Fantastic Four’s most interesting enemies.

As we’ve known for some time, Secret Invasion will reveal an attack by the Skrulls, the shapeshifting aliens introduced in Captain Marvel. While the Skrulls in Captain Marvel, led by Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, were largely sympathetic refugees from the Kree Empire, the Skrulls of the comics tend to be antagonists. The race first appeared in 1961’s Fantastic Four #2, in which the heroes discovered an invasion and repelled it by forcing the shapeshifters to take the form of cows.

After a few run-ins with the FF and their amazing powers, the Skrulls responded by creating their own team. Using genetic engineering, the warrior Kl’rt was given the powers of all four members of the gang, which he could use at the same time and in conjunction with his shape-changing skills. Taking the name Super-Skrull, Kl’rt became a champion among Skrulls and a worthy opponent for the FF. Even better, the Super-Skrull developed into one of the more complex villains in the Marvel Universe, a noble warrior with his own moral code, which sometimes pits him against his own people.

Super-Skrull memorably fought against Skrull extremists in the comic book series Secret Invasion, but given the expected diversions from that story, no one expected Kl’rt to show up in the Disney+ series. Recent confirmations that Emilia Clarke and Kingsley Ben-Adir would both be playing Skrulls with no comic book antecedents only pushed thoughts of Super-Skrull further out of mind.

But towards the end of the latest trailer for Secret Invasion, the espionage stylings give way to one shot of a Skrull attacking by stretching its arm in a giant tangle of vines. We haven’t seen Skrulls exhibit such an ability in any other (admittedly limited) portrayal, but we have seen a similar attack before, from Guardians of the Galaxy member Groot. Does this mean that the Super-Skrull is coming in Secret Invasion, complete with Groot tree (and other) powers?

While it’s unlikely that Marvel has cast a major character like Super-Skrull and not yet announced it (though not unprecedented, see the end credit scenes of Thor: Love & Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), this may all be setting the stage for a Super-Skrull plot reveal. The Skrulls know that Earth has a lot of superheroes, and the radicals led by Ben-Adir’s Gravik may have prepared by modifying their warriors with the abilities of those heroes, signaling the coming of Super-Skrull and the arrival of the FF and their excellent rogues gallery.

We’ll know more when Secret Invasion hits Disney+ on June 21.