‘Secret Invasion’ Director Ali Selim Discusses The Show’s Ending and Fan Reaction to the Series

Now that Marvel’s Secret Invasion has concluded on Disney+ director Ali Selim took some time to reflect back on the show’s creation and development.

While much of the buildup around Secret Invasion revolved around the show’s tagline “Who do you trust?”, according to Selim the message of the show was actually something very different.

Photo: Super Hero Hype

“The theme that interested me in these scripts and in this story was the theme of other. How do we confront the other in our neighborhood? How do we confront the other in ourselves? And How do we reconcile love that doesn’t seem to fit into a socially acceptable box? Sam Jackson and I had a lot of conversations about that; Kingsley Ben-Adir and I had a lot of conversations about that.

Ultimately, the scene that I pushed for and really enjoyed is when Nick Fury kisses Varra at the end. That is releasing the sense of “other” in himself that has been a constraint or a prejudice. It’s opening up the world to conversation, if not all out love and embracing. It’s the very last scene of the series, and it really feels like that’s what it’s about,” Salim explained.

Photo: Marvel

The High Octane Ending

Secret Invasion’s main antagonist Gravik, was finally defeated in the show’s final episode after a supercharged battle with Emilia Clarke’s G’iah.

According to Salim however, the show’s emotional resonance doesn’t come from the big action scenes, but the quieter, more-subtle moments.

Photo: Marvel

” When you get to a heavily choreographed fight scene or bombing sequence or an ambush sequence, it’s just kind of fun, right? It’s actors being like, “OK, I don’t have to bring it today. I just have to be a 12-year-old swinging from a rope.” So, there’s a lot of fun in those moments and there’s a lot of danger. But it’s not as emotionally significant or emotionally resonant as the quiet moment in Episode 5 where she and Nick Fury discussed Talos’ death,” Salim explained.

“The fight sequences become mathematical, mechanical, precise. “Did we get it?” “Yes.” “Move on.” It comes together later in edit, and then you congratulate your mathematics and your mechanics; you don’t congratulate the emotional resonance.”

Photo: Marvel

Reaction to Poor Reviews

Finally, when discussing the poor reaction to Secret Invasion, Salim began by stating he doesn’t read reviews.

Despite this, the director stated that he knows you can’t please everyone and thus feels great about the response to the show.

Photo: Marvel

“Oh, I don’t read reviews. With all due respect. For me, I view all the storytelling work I do as a dialogue with an audience. When the show is finished and put up on the screen, that’s my half of the dialogue. And the audience then starts their half of the response to it. I think that’s valuable, but I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer the question.

But, I don’t feel bad about mixed reviews. If you had unanimously good reviews, every movie would gross $10 billion, trillion dollars, right? [Projects] resonate with different people at different times for different reasons, and Marvel has a very devoted — even rabid — fan base who have expectations and when their expectations aren’t fulfilled, they move in the other direction; they give it a thumbs down.

I don’t know — is it our job to fulfill their expectations? Or to tell the story that we’re telling? So, it’s a tricky thing. I would love it if everybody loved it, but I also don’t have that expectation myself, so I feel great about the response to it.”

Photo: Marvel

While Secret Invasion was divisive among Marvel fans, it also set up The Marvels, which is scheduled to hit theaters in November.

In the end, Salim and his team feel like they did their job as storytellers, and maybe that is all that truly matters.

Photo: Entertainment Weekly

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