Kevin Feige does it again. Maybe he should go interview Jon Favreau for a second time.
It’s learned the director (and probably the entire cast and crew) of the upcoming “event series” coming to Disney Plus on Wednesday was told not to read the Secret Invasion comic books and that they were told the comic has nothing to do with the MCU.
The Secret Invasion comic book event was the Marvel Comics event that followed Mark Millar’s epic Civil War event, which Feige also butchered in a cash grab only because Zack Snyder announced Batman vs Superman.
So it should be no surprise that Feige, who cares nothing about the comics, is now ruining the Secret Invasion comic book which was written by Brian Michael Bendis, interestingly enough a member of the Marvel Comics Creative Committee that at one time advised the MCU under Ike Perlmutter who Feige hates.
Grace Randolph interviewed a member of the cast as well as a director, where the interview comes off as a total disaster – not the fault of Randolph – when it comes to promoting the show.
Actor doesn’t have a clue
As it is comic books movies and TV shows we are talking about here, and I believe Randolph is a big fan of the Secret Invasion comic, Randolph asks actor Kingsley Ben-Adir if he could have a superpower what would it be.
The actor doesn’t have a clue in the world and admits he stole his answer – healing – from another actor he heard asked the same question. Randolph says her own power would be telekinesis, where Kingsley Ben-Adir confuses it with teleportation.
Dude, seriously?
Well, maybe Kingsley Ben-Adir simply isn’t a fan of comics and that doesn’t mean he won’t do a good job as the Skrull, Gravik, so I suppose we can give him a pass, right?
Shocking what the director has to say
What is shocking, however, is what director Ali Selim has to say.
Grace says he made changes from the comics for the TV show and asks, “How did you and Samuel L. Jackson feel about taking the MCU version of the character in a different direction?
Ali Selim replies, “When I first got this job the first thing they said to me is don’t read the comics. This has nothing to do with the comics.”
Yikes!
Selim continues to go on and say, “I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done a great job of being inspired by the comics and taking characters from the comics but telling a story that’s unto the Cinematic Universe by itself. It was time to tell the Nick Fury story. That was a decision made by Marvel.”
Update: Selim tells Deadline while he was told not to read the comics he read them anyway:
The first thing that they said to me when I came on board is ‘Don’t read the comics.’ So I read the comics. I understand why they told me not to read the comics, but that was really, really valuable. It was less for me about ‘This is a new direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’ and more ‘This is the story we are telling.’ We’re telling the story of Nick Fury, that Samuel L. Jackson has evolved into now somewhat older, and probably wiser and more experienced, but also a little broken, disoriented by the blip, disoriented by the disorientation that the blip brought him and created an absence from Earth. He’s come back to accomplish a task that he’s been handed, and in order to do that task, I think he has to confront some issues in his personal life that he’s been avoiding. He has to go into his internal life and ask some questions about purpose and mistakes, fears, doubts. That made it all very interesting to me, because it’s on a human scale. I’m not as old as Sam, don’t tell him I said that. But I’m closer to his age than most people are, and I think I was excited by the prospect of telling that kind of story. So I felt like it really lined up with my interests and my storytelling ability.
DEADLINE: Why do you think they didn’t want you to read the comics?
SELIM: I think it’s just very simple that they were saying the story doesn’t come from there. It’s not based on the comics. It’s inspired by the characters in the comics. But really, the story was born out of the dynamic electricity created between Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn on set during Captain Marvel. And Marvel said, ‘We got to do something with that.’ That’s where the story was born. So they just told me not to get bogged down. Read the scripts, don’t read the source material, because the source material is not really source material.
Well, I guess that explains why there are no Avengers around. So it’s not Secret Invasion, then why call it Secret Invasion? Anyway, there’s more…
So Grace Randolph was only given the first two episodes to review and asked Ali Selim – who is listed on IMDb as directing all six episodes of Secret Invasion – what everyone has to look forward to the rest of the season.
Check out his response:
“Well the funny thing is is I’ve only seen the first two episodes so I can’t really tell you what to look forward to,” he says, “but I hope by the end of it you’re thrilled and satisfied.”
So the director directed all the episodes and has yet to see the finished product? Wow!!!
“Secret Invasion” premiers on Disney Plus on Wednesday, June 21.
