The director of ‘Secret Invasion’ on the series’ “boots on the ground” take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Disney+ dropped the third installment of Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion on Wednesday, July 5.

While the six-part series deals with Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury untangling a shape-shifting alien race’s takeover of earth’s global superpowers, it’s free of the traditional superpowers usually associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, executive producer and director Ali Selim tells ABC Audio.

Selim calls the cloak-and-dagger series a “sort of human scale” show. “Like ‘boots on the ground’ grounded. No superhero superpowers,” he says.

He adds, “But, you know, Nick Fury has a set of superpowers that are more human scaled, like persuasion and empathy and negotiation. And he’s a very powerful man in that sense but not in that something could come out of the sky and save the day. It really boils down to his human ingenuity that’s going to get him out of a situation.”

Selim says, “I was really drawn to that, and I was drawn to a lot of the human scale themes that are presented in the script, like mistrust and paranoia and the sense of Nick Fury being older, being a little bit broken, having some doubts and having to visit his personal life — which we’ve never done before — in order for him to accomplish his task.”

Jackson has played the character on the big and small screen ever since an after-credits scene in 2008’s Iron Man, but the six-part series is a deeper dive into the person himself, the filmmaker says.

Secret Invasion also stars returning MCU vets Don Cheadle and Ben Mendelsohn as well as Marvel newcomers: Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman; Barbie‘s Kingsley Ben-Adir and Game of Thrones and Solo: A Star Wars Story veteran Emilia Clarke.

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