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With Marvel’s Secret Invasion now on Disney+, many fans are wondering what, exactly, are the Skrulls? MCU fans might be familiar with this race of shapeshifting aliens, but not much of their history has been explained on-screen. The Skrulls are an entirely new, incredibly confusing concept for fans just now jumping aboard the Marvel bandwagon. It’s easy to get lost in Marvel’s complex, decades-long web of character lore when searching for more information on the Skrulls before you watch Secret Invasion. To help, we’ve compiled a deep dive into what Skrulls are and their history in the Marvel comics and the MCU.
What Are The Skrulls in Marvel’s Secret Invasion?
Skrulls are a race of green-skinned reptilian aliens with the unique ability to change their size, shape, and color at will, letting them shapeshift into other people. Skrulls are about as large as the average human in their base form, only with pointy, elf-like ears. As a race, the Skrulls pride themselves on being mighty warriors who founded the Skrull Empire, the oldest empire in the entire universe. Their race is also known as Deviant Skrulls.
Historically, the Skrulls have been locked in an extraterrestrial war with the Kree, a race of blue-skinned, technologically advanced aliens who founded the Kree Empire.
When Did The Skrulls First Appear in the Comics?
Skrulls debuted in the Marvel comics with Fantastic Four #2 (1961). Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the Skrull first appeared as aliens who had “taken a deadly oath to destroy the Fantastic Four” and were described as “merciless” and “inhuman” with “powers far greater than Earthmen.” They would next appear in Fantastic Four #18 (1963), where the Fantastic Four faced off against the Super-Skrull, who had the powers of the Fantastic Four combined. In the same issue, four Skrulls would impersonate the Fantastic Four.
Comic fans would get their first look at Skrullos, the Skrull homeworld, in Fantastic Four #37 (1965).
The four Skrulls who impersonated the Fantastic Four would later appear in Avengers #92 (1971), where they impersonate Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, causing the Avengers to disband until the shapeshifters were discovered. In the forty years since their first appearance, the Skrull have appeared in 143 other comic books, largely dealing with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.
The Skrulls and TV Appearances
Skrulls would make their first on-screen appearance with The Fantastic Four, a 1967 animated series based on the group’s first comic run. Notable Skrull characters in the series included Kurrgo, the Skrull Emperor (Don Messick), the Super-Skrull (Marvin Miller), and the Skrull Warlord Morrat (Tol Avery). The Fantastic Four would run for a single, twenty-episode season, with notable Skrull-based episodes including “Invasion of the Super Skrulls,” “Prisoners of Planet X,” and “Behold a Distant Star.”
Aside from 1967’s The Fantastic Four, the Skrull would also appear in several other TV series based around the Fantastic Four, including The New Fantastic Four (1978), Fantastic Four (1994), Silver Surfer (1998), and Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (2006). The Skrulls’ other TV appearances include X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), The Super Hero Squad Show (2009), The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010), Avengers Assemble (2013) and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (2013).
The Skrulls and the MCU
As far as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is concerned, the Skrulls are a fairly new development. This is mostly because the MCU has only ventured beyond Earth in the last few years, beginning with Captain Marvel in 2019. The Skrulls also made their MCU debut in Captain Marvel, where they were portrayed in a surprisingly sympathetic light compared to the militaristic Kree.
In Captain Marvel, Ben Mendelsohn plays Talos, a Skrull refugee leading a group of other refugees to seek the aid of renegade Kree Mar-Vell. Talos spends a portion of the movie shapeshifted into Keller, a high-ranking government official, and Nick Fury’s boss. Talos’ wife, Soren, is another Skrull played by Sharon Blynn. Throughout the movie, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers – aka Captain Marvel – grows into her role as an intergalactic superhero as she defends Talos, Soren, and the Skrull refugees from the Kree in the middle of the Kree-Skrull War.
The Skrull would make their next MCU appearance not long after their debut with Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). In this film, Ben Mendelsohn and Sharon Blynn would reprise their roles as Talos and Soren as the pair assume the identities of Nick Fury and Maria Hill. However, their roles would go uncredited in the film, as their disguises aren’t revealed until a mid-credits scene where the audience also learns that the real Nick Fury has been in space commanding a group of Skrulls the whole time.
Aside from their appearances in movies, the Skrull have also made two appearances in the MCU’s television shows. A Skrull, played by Lori Livingston, appeared in a post-credits scene for the WandaVision episode “Series Finale” (2021), posing as an FBI agent tasked with convincing Monica Rambeau, an old friend of Carol Danvers, that Maria Hill needs her help. Skrull also appears in the What If…? episode “What If…Thor Were an Only Child?” as guests at a wild house party thrown by a teenage Thor.
From what we already know of Secret Invasion, Ben Mendelsohn will be returning as Talos, who has to work with Nick Fury to stop a rogue Skrull sect led by Gravix (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Are you excited to see the Skrulls return to the MCU? Let us know in the comments!
