Yep, That Big Secret Invasion Twist Seems Permanent

The following post contains spoilers for "Secret Invasion" episode 2.

Marvel's latest Disney+ show, "Secret Invasion," has released its second episode, and the stakes have just gone way up for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). He's been away from Earth at least since the events of the post-credits scene in "Spider-Man: Far From Home," where we found him getting a message while up on a space station. In the trailer for "The Marvels," we learn that this space station is the home of S.A.B.E.R., which appears to be doing what S.W.O.R.D. was designed for; taking care of threats from space. Now he's returned because he's found out that some of the Skrulls are trying to take this world and make it their own. 

One of the main tactics of the rogue Skrulls is to cause terrorist attacks that set different countries against each other. In the show's second episode, the target is a festival in Moscow, and they shapeshift into humans who are part of a group called Americans Against Russia. If you've seen the episode, you know a major character was killed in the blast, and despite a series full of shapeshifters and a universe where half of existence was brought back to life, it appears that this death might be permanent. 

As you likely know, Maria Hill, played by Cobie Smulders, died during the attack while working with Fury to try and stop the bombers. While this was a shocking death, the first thing some people thought (going by my extremely non-scientific Twitter scrolling) is that this was a Skrull version of Hill and that she might be alive somewhere.

The thing is, we've seen Skrulls that are masquerading as humans die before in this series, and they always turn back into Skrulls. When the person pretending to be Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) died, he turned back into a Skrull. When MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman) cut off the finger of a prisoner who looks human, the now-detached digit turned into a Skrull finger. Maria Hill, however, was clearly shown to have open, unseeing human eyes after the explosion, and her body remained in human form. She died in that plaza. Fury even escorts her body home to America to her mother. Morbidly, that means that several people have seen her body after her death. Maria Hill is not a Skrull. That means we won't be seeing her again, right? Don't be so sure. 

It's hard to think of any death as permanent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or anywhere else in a superhero franchise these days) because the multiverse means that any actor could play an alternate version of themselves at any time. We could certainly see a different universe's version of Maria Hill at some point. That's the obvious theory. We could also see a Skrull impersonate her as Soren (Sharon Blynn) did in "Far From Home." There is also one way that the Maria Hill we saw die in the attack could be a Skrull, but it's a strange one. 

In the comics, Skrulls can't copy the abilities of superpowered people. Well, most of them. One character named Kl'rt in the comics undergoes a process that allows him to shapeshift into superheroes with all their abilities, making him a Super Skrull. Later characters became Super Skrulls as well. We don't know if we'll see one of these in "Secret Invasion" and what their powers would be in the show, but we certainly could. Gravik is doing something in the trailer with a large device, and many bodies in a room are clearly going through some sort of procedure. We also see Gravik twisting his body into shapes in the same trailer. 

It's possible that, if we do get a Super Skrull(s) in this series, one of their powers in the MCU could be retaining their shifted form after death. It might explain how she didn't turn back into a Skrull when "Maria Hill" died, and if that's the case, the real Maria Hill might still be out there. 

"Secret Invasion" is streaming on Disney+.