How Long Has Rhodey Been A Skrull In The MCU? An Investigation

This article contains spoilers for the finale of "Secret Invasion."

After months and months of anticipation for what Marvel would do with one of the most thrilling storylines to ever grace comics, "Secret Invasion" has officially come to an end — not with a franchise-shaking bang, unfortunately, but more of a deflating whimper. The noticeably rushed final episode may have wrapped a neat and tidy bow on what was promised to be a sprawling and impossibly complicated plot involving Skrulls taking the Earth as their own home, but viewers were still left with a number of questions and loose ends. Perhaps the biggest of them has to do with one Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), who was revealed a few weeks back to be a Skrull in disguise. That twist certainly lines up with his much more antagonistic personality in the series (although, in retrospect, it also puts his heartfelt conversation with Fury about being Black men in America in a much different and more uncomfortable light), but naturally, that's led fans to wonder:

Exactly how long has Rhodey been walking around with a shapeshifting alien wearing his skin like a designer suit?

We ran into a similar concern when the series premiere pulled the same stunt with Martin Freeman's Everett Ross, but the finale includes at least one possible hint that Rhodey has been impersonated by a Skrull for even longer than fans might have assumed. Even more than that, Marvel President Kevin Feige has previously gone on record saying the same thing, inviting viewers to go back and carefully watch past appearances throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe for actions and behavior that, looking back with the benefit of hindsight, doesn't fully line up with the Rhodey we've come to know and love. We have ... several questions.

Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury definitely has experience dealing with important military leaders who've fallen off the grid and remained in stasis for a long time while the world has moved on without them. But unlike Steve Rogers, frozen in ice for over 70 years, the timeline surrounding Rhodey is much more muddled. Upon waking up, Ross looks over and asks the question on all our minds: "How long have you been in here?", referring to Gravik's (Kingsley Ben-Adir) Skrull compound in Russia where humans who've been impersonated are being stored indefinitely. Parsing the clues, we might have actually have an answer to that.

First, there's the matter of Rhodey's hospital gown. The last time we saw him in a similar getup, he was placed in an MRI tube after getting blown out of the sky by Paul Bettany's Vision all the way back in "Captain America: Civil War." Also consider the fact that he collapses as soon as G'iah (Emilia Clarke) frees him, suggesting that he hasn't healed from his debilitating spinal injury. The timeline certainly makes sense, as the Skrulls — both Talos' (Ben Mendelsohn) and Gravik's factions — have spent the last 30+ years in the MCU hiding among humans and playing the long game. It's well within the realm of possibility that Skrulls managed to abscond with the wounded hero and, if true, the implications mean he still has no idea about everything that's taken place in the years since ... including the death of his best bud, Tony Stark.

Would Marvel really go for a retcon as disturbing as that? Well, perhaps that's what ends up motivating Rhodes during his next appearance in the upcoming "Armor Wars," originally meant to be another Disney+ series before shifting to the big screen.

Skrulls aren't the only ones who've been executing some grand, master plan over the last several years ... if you take Kevin Feige's word for it, at least.

During episode 4 of "Secret Invasion," it was officially confirmed that the Rhodey we've been following all this time was not the same Rhodey first introduced in the "Iron Man" movies. But that's practically begging for some greater clarification. But if you were expecting Feige of all people to provide some solid answers, well, chances are you've been fast asleep at the hands of villainous Skrulls all along. In an interview with Marvel.com published a few weeks ago, teased the possibility that prior movies in the MCU might take on a vastly different perspective now that we know about the Skrulls:

"We like the idea of fans going back and watching some of the other appearances of Rhodey and realizing that that wasn't him."

That's an intriguing idea, but, in all honesty, I'm not entirely convinced that Marvel had this planned out for years and years. I'm one of a dozen killjoys who looked sideways at the inconsistent writing that had Rhodey being all for superhero registration in "Civil War" before he suddenly and inexplicably switched allegiances by the time "Avengers: Infinity War" rolled around, but him being a secret Skrull doesn't really account for that change of heart any better than shoddy writing does. The simplest answer is that, as Feige himself admitted in the interview, they "...needed to have a character that one would not expect to be a Skrull" and landed on a perfect candidate with Rhodey. Will we ever find out how long he's been green? Tune in to "Armor Wars" to find out, I guess!

"Secret Invasion" is currently streaming on Disney+.