The first episode of Secret Invasion was released on Disney+ yesterday, and it's been a hot topic on social media thanks to the show's use of AI in the opening credits and the shocking death of a longstanding Marvel Cinematic Universe character. Warning: Spoilers Ahead! At the end of the first episode, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to stop a bombing planned by the Skrulls with the help of his longtime allies Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). Sadly, they are unable to prevent the attack and Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) morphs into Fury and shoots Hill. The episode ends with her death, and fans are not happy that she's already gone.
Smulders first appeared as Maria Hill in The Avengers in 2012, and she went on to play the role in Captain America: The Winter Solider, multiple episodes of Agents of SHIELD, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home (although, it's revealed at the end of the film that she was actually Talos' wife, Soren, in disguise). Many fans have felt Maria Hill never got her time to shine in the MCU, and were hoping Secret Invasion would be her big chance. While fans may be upset, Smulders has talked about her role in the show and made it seems as though she is happy with how things played out.
"I'm really excited about it and it's a very different tone that I have seen, especially like having Sam in anything is just a thrill to watch but I think it really like just sets his character up in a really interesting way that I've always wanted to see, so I was really excited about that," Smulders told TV Line. "I would like to say it's the most depth I've been able to show off Maria Hill. I think that's the beauty of the series that Marvel is doing, is you're able to really like get the backstory of these characters like what is, what are the conversations that happen when they're just sitting around drinking coffee. You know, it's not like we gotta get the guy to go do the thing like we gotta save the world, again, you know it's like, well, let's just have a chat. Let's go for a walk, you know, so we get to have those kinds of moments and be a little bit more intimate with the characters, so it's really exciting."
You can check out some of the reactions to Maria Hill's death from fans on Twitter below...
You Have To Laugh To Keep From Crying
At Least The Memes Are Good
Always and Forever
The second episode of Secret Invasion drops on Disney+ on June 28th. How do you feel about Maria Hill's death? Tell us in the comments!