Secret Invasion Director Teases Possible Talos Return (Exclusive)

Secret Invasion hit Marvel fans with the gut punches of two major character deaths: Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Skrull General Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). While both deaths were surprising, Hill had been with the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise for over a decade, while fans were still getting to know Talos, after a first appearance in Captain Marvel, and a sort-of-significant presence (impersonating Fury) in Spider-Man: Far From Home – and possibly other places. 

So how did Marvel Studios and/or Mendelsohn make the decision to end Talos' story at this point? And, more importantly, there is the question a lot of fans can't stop wondering: 

Is Talos Really Dead?

ComicBook.com Phase Zero Marvel podcast host Brandon Davis sat down with Secret Invasion director Ali Selim to reflect upon the series following the finale. When it came to the subject of Talos' death, Seilm made it clear that he was in no position to make the calls about who died, or not. 

"Well, as you must know, some of those decisions are way above my pay grade and way above my time on the MCU, so I can't even speak to why," Selim admitted. "But they're very good friends, Nick Fury and Talos. It's a beautiful love story that's almost on par with his marriage to Varra. And so my job is to make it as heartfelt and gut-wrenching as it can be in the moment."

Selim made sure to let Marvel fans know that while he was jut trying to give Nick Fury's story stakes and weight by killing those close to him, there's still a lot of history between Talos and Nick Fury that could be revisited later – not to mention any surprise reveals that Talos was involved in any number of MCU events while impersonating Fury or someone else:  

"They cremated his body in episode five. This story does take place in 2023, 2024, so I can totally see a Nick Fury story that takes place prior to this where who knows who's going to show up, and if a story takes place after 2023, 2024, anything's possible in the MCU. They'll come up with a reason why he's back. I don't really know what the ultimate plan was other than it really makes for a gut-wrenching, isolating story for Nick Fury within the walls of these six episodes."

Secret Invasion is now streaming on Disney+.