Spoilers ahead for the latest episode of Secret Invasion, called "Betrayed."
While Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury is the star of Secret Invasion, Don Cheadle’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, has also been given a prominent role in this Marvel Cinematic Universe chapter. At this point in the timeline, Rhodey is working closely with President Ritson, and in last week’s episode, “Promises,” he discharged Fury from being the head of S.A.B.E.R. on behalf of the U.S. government, blaming him for the Unity Day bombing and the death of Maria Hill. However, a possible twist has been introduced that would add new layers to this pivotal scene.
Some Disney+ subscribers had already suspected that the Rhodey we’re watching in Secret Invasion is actually a Skrull, and now there’s even more evidence to back that up. At the end of the latest episode, “Betrayed,” Charlayne Woodard’s Varra, the Skrull who’s been revealed as Nick Fury’s wife, was seen receiving a call from an unidentified individual while retrieving a gun from a safety deposit box. This caller told Varra, who’s known as Priscilla Fury in her human guise, to meet her at St. James Church in one hour, and when she said she needed to speak to Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Gravik, the caller responded, “Yeah, well, you’re talking to me.” Here’s the kicker: the voice on the other end of the line sounded a lot like Rhodey.
As if there wasn’t already a lot to chew on from “Betrayed,” including Extremis being shown off as a Super Skrull power and Emilia Clarke’s G’iah being shot by Gravik, possibly fatally, now there’s a solid lead pointing towards Secret Invasion’s Rhodey being a Skrull. But wait, there’s an extra piece of possible proof to take into account. During “Betrayed,” we also saw Nick Fury suss out that another Skrull was pretending to be Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos because he referred to the one-eyed spy as “Nick,” when anyone who’s remotely close to him calls him “Fury,” as was first shared in Captain Marvel. During Rhodey and Fury’s conversation in “Promises.” the former called the latter “Nick,” but considering how far back these two go, you’d think there’s enough familiarity that Rhodey wouldn’t have any issue calling him by his last name.
Now keep in mind that we don’t have a 100% guarantee that Secret Invasion’s Rhodey is a Skrull just yet, but between the “Nick” thing and the voice who spoke to Varra on the phone, not to mention how brutally Rhodey treated Nick Fury in “Promises,” there’s more to indicate there’s a shapeshifter pretending to be one of the MCU’s longest-running characters. Should this be the case, then that would mean that the real Rhodey is unconscious and hooked up to one of those Skrull machines giving the aliens continuous access to their victims’ memories.
The good news is that if the real Rhodey has indeed been replaced by a Skrull, we don’t need to worry about him not making it out of Secret Invasion alive. Don Cheadle is on deck to lead Armor Wars, which is now being developed as a movie after first being envisioned as a TV series. So things are looking good for the character in the long-term, but for right now, there’s definitely cause for concern about someone potentially taking his place. On top of that, now we also have to wonder what’s going on with Varra. Is she secretly affiliated with Gravik, or has she infiltrated his ranks to obtain intel for Fury and/or Talos? Fingers crossed that next week’s episode provides some clarity about that.
New episodes of Secret Invasion drop Wednesday on Disney+. Keep track of what else the MCU has slated for the coming years with out guides covering upcoming Marvel TV shows and upcoming Marvel movies.
