Marvel swaps superpowers for spies in ‘Secret Invasion’

Alien conspiracies, Oscar winners and hardly a superhero in sight: Marvel is taking its record-breaking franchise in a new direction with “Secret Invasion,” a spy thriller starring Samuel L Jackson, Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke.

The series, out next Wednesday on Disney+, marks Jackson’s 14th Marvel film or television series, but the first time his character Nick Fury is the undisputed star.

Fury, the mysterious, sometime boss of the all-powerful Avengers, originally appeared on-screen way back in 2008’s “Iron Man” -- the movie that launched the entire Marvel franchise that has come to dominate Hollywood.

But the new series “ranks number one, in terms of things I’ve done in the Marvel cinematic universe,” Jackson told a press conference Wednesday.

“It’s a story about people doing people stuff, without all those supers coming in to save you,” he said, referring to superheroes.

The series finds US spy-chief Fury battling shapeshifting, reptilian humanoids known as Skrulls introduced in previous Marvel films, who live among us, and are intent on fomenting war between Moscow and Washington.

Fury must also contend with British spook Sonya Falsworth, played by Olivia Colman, who appears to relish her character’s loose morality, including at least one shocking torture scene.