Marvel's Martin Freeman Breaks Silence on If Ross Was a Skrull in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The first episode of Marvel's Secret Invasion kicked off with a version of Everett Ross being killed by Talos. The audience quickly learns that the Ross featured in that opening scene wasn't actually Ross, but a Skrull impersonating the longtime government agent. While this could've been the only time Skrull-Ross appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans immediately started wondering how long that version of the character has been around. Have we been watching a Skrull impersonate Ross for years?
Those questions are sort of the point of Secret Invasion, making you wonder what's real and who to believe. While we haven't had any definitive information about the "real" Ross, the actor playing him believes that Secret Invasion is the one and only time the Skrull version has been present. While speaking to Collider, Martin Freeman said that he thinks the real Ross was present in other movies, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which has a timeline that overlaps with Secret Invasion.
"No, we had a conversation about it. Put it this way, I wasn't playing anything in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as a Skrull," Freeman explained. "I wasn't thinking, 'I'm a Skrull,' Secret Invasion and Wakanda Forever were definitely overlapping, chronologically, but I was never given a full definitive party line about, 'This is the Gospel truth now.'"
Everett Ross Hasn't Always Been a Skrull
Freeman went on to say that he simply refuses to believe that Ross has been a Skrull throughout his run in the MCU. He never approached the character like he could've been anything but a human being.
"I don't wanna play Ross as Skrull. I don't wanna believe he's been a Skrull this whole time, so I don't. That's not what I've played. I've believed, all the time, in Ross's integrity, actually. I really enjoy playing Ross, as a Skrull or otherwise. I've enjoyed playing him as an organic human man, so I don't wanna lose him to Skrulldom. So, no, Ross, for me, is not a Skrull. But I was forewarned before seeing a script and I was like, 'Huh? What the fuck?!' Because then, you have to retrofit everything you've done and everything the audience thinks. As someone said, when Duke Ellington died, 'If I don't want to believe it, I just won't believe it. It's not true, if I don't believe it.' So, I'm just gonna go with my own thing. I've played him as a human, so that's what I believe."
Of course, things could change if Marvel deems it so. Since there's been no definitive word on Ross since the Skrull death, it appears everything is still on the table.
The MCU's top superspy Nick Fury is back in Secret Invasion, the limited series that premiered June 21st on Disney+. Samuel L. Jackson returns in the new Marvel Studios series, showcasing Fury's attempt to get to the bottom of a Skrull invasion that goes all the way to the most powerful positions in various governments and organizations on the planet. In Secret Invasion, Fury teams with allies Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), while James Rhodes AKA War Machine will appear in a mysterious capacity. Other newcomers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe include Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.