SECRET SOCIETY

MARVEL PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT ON NICK FURY IN SECRET INVASION. DIRECTOR ALI SELIM TELLS SFX WHY THE AVENGERS ASSEMBLER CAN'T TRUST ANYONE

- JACK SHEPHERD

THINK YOU KNOW Nick Fury? Think again. The character has been a consistent presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since sneaking into Iron Man’s home and discussing a certain initiative.

Yet despite his screen time across 11 movies, Fury remains an enigma, an international man of mystery with no known home. That’s about to change. Secret Invasion, Marvel’s six-part espionage series, puts the spotlight firmly on Samuel L Jackson’s tough-talking leader, offering a look at Fury’s world beyond the superheroes with which he normally surrounds himself.

“Sam Jackson would say we knew the working part of Nick Fury, but we never knew anything about his personal life,” Ali Selim, the series’ director, tells SFX. “We never knew what his demons were. We never knew what his home life secrets were. He was never vulnerable or broken in any way.

“[In this show] you find out things about Nick at home. You find out his fallibility. He goes so far as to apologise, cap in hand, and say ‘I’m sorry.’ It’s very much not Nick Fury. Sam was pretty amazing taking a character that he knew so intimately, and pivoting down deep into that character’s chest and heart.”

RUMOUR CONTROL

Fury (he prefers being called by his last name, that we do know) certainly has his hands full in Secret Invasion. After literally coming back down to Earth, Fury discovers a conspiracy being hatched by a wayward pack of Skrulls, the shapeshifting aliens first introduced in