The Ringer-Verse - The ‘Secret Invasion’ Premiere Skrull Reveal Implications and Theories [VIDEO]

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

Join Jessica Clemons as she parses the big reveal in the opening moments of ‘Secret Invasion,’ the newest Marvel show on Disney+. Jessica assesses potential body-swap timelines using clues from prior MCU phases (3:00), looks ahead to the ramifications of the premiere's events on Marvel's political operative characters (7:15), and theorizes about which other characters could turn out to be Skrulls in 'Secret Invasion' and beyond (8:54). Host: Jessica Clemons Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervison: Richie Bozek, Mallory Rubin, and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Jessica Clemens here on the Ringerverse, and I'll be showing up on the feed with theories, Easter egg breakdowns, and explainers on all your favorite content. This podcast doubles as a video, and if you'd like to watch the amazing work our editors did, or you're just a visual learner, you can watch the video on Spotify, the Ringers website, or on the Ringers YouTube channel.

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And spoiler warning for the Secret Invasion premiere, the implications now set forth since Everett Ross has been revealed to be a scroll. This is major news, a major reveal. As major as Maria Hill dying at the end? I don't know. But immediately, after Scroll, Everett Ross was revealed, two things came to my mind. One, I called it. And two, Everett Ross is directly linked to Wakanda and the CIA.

He was a former agent and ex-husband to the newly assigned CIA director of Valentina Allegra DeFontaine. You know, our girl, Julie D. Reiface, Seinfeld. So this Everett Ross scroll retains top secret information on arguably two major foundations in the MCU. Now, that in the wrong hands is dangerous. I mean, take down the CIA if you want, but Wakanda, no, please, don't do that. I'll just cry. So I'll be diving into that as well as who I think our next secret scroll could be. In the pilot episode of Secret Invasion, we catch a glimpse of our favorite colonizer, Everett Ross.

And within eight minutes of the first episode, it's revealed that Everett Ross is a scroll. Now, for those that don't remember, the scrolls really made a big entrance in the MCU during 2019's Captain Marvel when we get a glimpse at the Cree Skrill War. Eventually, the Cree destroyed their homeworld scrollos. and I love how on the nose that name is, leaving the scrolls with nowhere to go. A lot of them ended up on Earth like Talos and his family or in hiding as we see in the series

and usually working for Nick Fury, which is kind of messed up in its own way because these people must abide by human rules, stay in hiding and wait on Fury to find them a new home and instead of actively finding them a new home, Fury and Company are just using them as spies. Just feels like forced labor and not right with me. In the first episode, The Scroll Everett Ross,

is talking with Agent Prescott, played by Richard Dormer in present-day Moscow. It's heavily implied maybe this guy's, a little crazy, but it starts unraveling from this manic rambling into, holy crap, I just revealed all my intel to someone that might be a scroll. And it's easy to start believing Prescott, and we start getting a feel of the grounded real-life expectations of living in secret invasion, which is, you can't really trust anyone. Agent Prescott reveals five global terror strikes in the past year, each one claimed by a different group. He called it a violent chain reaction, and the attacks

are escalating and will hit major power soon. As we find out later, he's completely right. Gravick created a faux organization called Americans Against Russia to play as a terrorist. organization setting up an entire all-out war between everyone, and it doesn't help that Fury and Maria Hill are seen at the attack in Moscow. It looks like they are directly linked to the attack, and with Fury being MIA for so long, it might look like he's going rogue. The implications to the MCU are massive. Let's focus on the big scroll reveal of this episode, Everett Ross. How long has he been a scroll? What does it mean for the larger MCU? Let's also keep in mind that regardless of when Everett Ross was captured, the scrolls have absorbed his mind, so they know enough about him.

They know way too much about Wakanda, the CIA, Nick Fury, all these political things, which is basically what they did in the comics. They collected people from Earth, used their minds to learn their mannerisms and pass so no one would expect anything. Last we saw Baby Boy E. Ross was in Wakanda forever doing a horrible job at his job, but he clearly has a trusting relationship with Wakanda. In the first Black Panther, he assisted to Chala and taking back the throne from Kilmonger, and he's also a great ally seeing as he can keep his ear to the ground in America for them. I know what you're thinking.

Jessica, at what point did Everett Ross get captured by scrolls? Firstly, I assume he's been captured and in Russia and one of those scrolls states his brain waivers. Secondly, let's look at Ross Russia and a bit of the scroll timeline. The scrolls arrived on Earth in the 90s, so for the better part of 30 years, the scrolls have been walking among us. I'm sure some had evil intentions,

but I assume they didn't immediately start harvesting people's minds, maybe after like a couple days, but that didn't stop the scrolls from immediately impersonating people. Remember the beach scene in Captain Marvel? It just turned out they weren't bad guys. Ross was working with the joint counter-terrorist center in Civil War, confiscating Captain America, Sam Wilson, and Tachala's gear. Imprisoning Bucky, then later, Zemo.

As an added reminder, civil war was all about the Socovia Accords, which Russia, the home base to the bad scrolls agreed to. This regulation forced our superheroes to show themselves. So if the scrolls and Russia found out who superheroes were, it made it easier to capture them. Then around early 2025, we have Everett Ross Post-Blip in Wakanda forever. Now, it's never mentioned whether or not Ross blipped, but in an interview with Uprocks, Martin Freeman when asked, did he survive the blip?

He said, I think so, yeah. Though that's wild, I think there's actually a lot of potential places Ross swapped with a scroll. It could have been during the blip if he didn't snap, or he could have been a scroll since the 90s. Though, I think that's very unlikely, seeing that sure he took the bullet out of Ross in the first Black Panther movie, and she would have noticed him being a scroll. I think it was sometime during Black Panther, Wakanda forever, post-jog, because what scroll would be using their human body for exercise? Ain't nobody have time for that.

Now, this is a working theory, seeing as there's no evidence to correctly identify scrolls, but here's my reasoning Everett Ross was captured by the scrolls in Wakanda Forever, specifically, and once again, post-red hot chili pepper's jog. I listened to Ross press Ramona for information, and it sort of sounds like him pressing Agent Prescott for evidence at the beginning of the episode. Play the clip. Might be onto the fact that I pointed Shuri and Akoye in the right direction. Look, if they're in danger, I want to help, but I can't if I don't know what's going on. I am afraid there is a new health power. Then where is Fury? He's on saver. And if I'm going to bring him down for

for whatever the hell this is, I need to give him something more than just theories. I need evidence. Scott, look, I'm here to help. Okay? So let me take this and I'll give the information to Fury, okay? For Ramonda, he's using his agency as leverage to get information on the talekineal, but in secret invasion, he's using his agency, aka Nick Fury, as leverage to get evidence of the Evil Scroll's bomb plans.

Essentially, he's doing the same dance. Ross can pull information out of people because his job is always searching for what they don't know. His job is literally to ask questions. It's such an easy and fine justification for him being a scroll. During all of Oconda Forever, Ross is a lot more incompetent than he was in the first movie, and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that Valentina showed up. The squirrel knows a shaky pass with his ex-wife, and Valentina was at one point very close to him. So close, maybe she'd notice something off when she made a comment on his figure.

Play the clip. You're looking good? Oh, I try. You put that home gym in? Yeah, last year. Maybe I'll drop by some time and jump on your peloton. Howdy. Arjuna caught that one.

This probably contributed to his nerves and made him react so unprofessionally and negligent when talking to the state secretary and when cornered by ballot his own home. He's clearly overpowered and overwhelmed, something I didn't see in Ross until he was shot in the first Black Panther movie, so something's clearly up.

Additionally, Ever Ross's arrival to the crime scene in Boston and Wakanda Forever, he's playing up the cop trope a little too much, pulled up in a black van, literally blocking the crime scene and black aviators and crisp white button down tucked in. Additionally, when he steps out of the car, He leaves the door wide freaking open.

This ain't Ross. It's some guy pretending to be a cop. This, and literally taking evidence from the crime scene in front of a bunch of cops, made him the worst CIA agent ever. Come on, let's not act like Everett Ross didn't do a sloppy job trying to hide his communication

with Wakanda in this movie. We have our theories as to when Ross was swapped out, but what about what it means for the series in the MCU? In regards to the political agenda in the series, graphic instills fear into civilians, but also into political figures by orchestrating mass attacks,

criminals sprees, and restructuring different hierarchies. It's like the DCEU. You think, After these attacks, we'd work together, but we humans don't work that way. We immediately turn to violence and more destruction, all driven by fear. Sonia says this. Play clip. Scrolls have infiltrated the ranks of major world powers.

Where is the truth? How about the arrival of Agent Fury? So they're already at work infiltrating other countries and setting up human-on-human war, leaving the scrolls to rule the planet. I think we can expect other nations to be scroll-led like America with President Ritson and on Groovic side because they all just want to go home. When Talos was in charge, he was making absolutely zero moves. They could use the political figures to frame others and sway the narrative,

so we can expect them to take Grovick's side of the war and usher the agenda that this planet is theirs, and they'll stop at nothing to make their new home. Now having access to Everett Ross, they have access to the whole nation of Wakanda. We all know they have Vibranium, one of the rarest, nearly indestructible substances on the planet. We've seen how the Wakanans and the telekhanel use Vibranium, so how would the scrolls use it? In the hands of bad scrolls, they could make any type of weapon. They can make any type of armor to protect themselves. Once they go to war, the scrolls could be really tough to take.

down. Additionally, in Wakanda forever, we saw the UN busting Ramonda for not sharing their resources, failure to tackle international challenges, even saying that they can use vibranium as a weapon of mass destruction and it going undetected on metal detectors. This is precious cargo, and Wakanda was right to keep it out of the UN's hands, but it looks like the UN and some scrolls might have found a new way to reach it. This episode is brought to you by Sweetgreen. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you.

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New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. We discussed the implications of Ross being a scroll and when he might have become a scroll, but now for another question at play, who are the secret scrolls? This isn't only citing the bad scrolls, but people who are just doubling as scrolls in general. Reminder, that Talos and Gravick have both been scroll Furies, and we saw a scroll Maria Hill and far from home. We first see him in the human stasis chamber. I don't know. I don't have a good name for it yet, and I'll take any suggestions. But right now,

we know there's around 100 scrolls working in the field as undercover agents. So we can expect a ton of surprise scroll cameos in the six-part series. We don't know who to trust. If there's something that's off within the last two phases of the MCU, we shouldn't let it go by the wayside, but actually question it. These are the simple clues that could lead us to people being Scrolls. EP of Secret Invasion, Jonathan Schwartz said, what you find is there are people that you trust or you think you can trust or you can only trust at a certain point. I don't think that should stop at the Avengers. Overall, my top scrolls with exceptions to Everett Ross will be President Ritson, Sonia Wong, and Ant Man. Let me cook. The current president is President Ritson, but Harrison

Ford was hired as Thunderbolt Ross and is appearing in Captain America, Brave New World, as the U.S. President. So at what point does Ritson resign or die? And Ross step in. We all see the explosions from the trailer in the black SUV, so I think that's when our boy Ritson is murdered. And I'm sorry if that sounded dark, but he probably will be murdered. If you remember Wakanda Forever, the U.S. State Secretary mentions President Ritson wanting to destabilize Wakanda after what happened in Boston and not sharing their vibranium. There's also a small ticker in Wakanda forever under the news about Ramonda's death that says President Ritson signed trade pack with New Asgard to create a mutually beneficial partnership. Agent Prescott said earlier in the episode that this is a violent chain reaction,

and I think it works both ways, violently and peacefully. I think Ritson made that pact with New Asgard because someone in New Asgard is a scroll. And once they work together, not only do they share resources, they can start to expand, take over bigger territories. The entire name of the game is you don't know who you can trust, right? Prescott at the beginning speculates that people closest to us

could be scrolls our entire lives. Now, Gaia mentioned some people she doesn't even know our scrolls because they're so deep undercover. And there's some secrets Gravik keeps in a tight circle. I think one of those secrets will be revealed that Sonia is actually a scroll. Sianas Gravick has plants everywhere with some that are in power.

It's not surprising Sonia would be one of them. Her disdain for the scrolls is a lie to keep people off her trail. For a long time, people speculated Coleman to be Queen Veronica, aka Queen of the Scrolls in the comics, who posed as Spider Woman and orchestrated the secret invasion. And I think it's still all possible she is

and is actually leading the militia with Gravick, being her follower, imposing as the leader of the scrolls. I also think Fury leaving the ally lens behind wasn't only to spy on her, but because he doesn't trust her being a huge human. He said himself he can't tell who's a scroll, but he can tell when a human is lying. I think that was to ruffle her feathers a little bit, and no pun intended to the owl. Wong simply has appeared too many times in the MCU to not be a scroll, you guys.

Whether this is a genetically made up scroll to mimic his powers is beyond me, but I think it's possible for a scroll to solely use the sling ring. If it's easy enough for Donnie Blaze and Ned to use a sling ring, I think there's at least one scroll in the world that can do it. My reasoning for Amman being a scroll is simply that we all know the scrolls dispersed during the Cree Skrrel war, and we don't know where some of them went. The Cree are more advanced in technology, but I'm sure there's a scroll scientist out there that found the entrance to the quantum realm and either studied it or like Cain got stuck. There's a ton of theories to Ant Man leaving the quantum realm and whether or not that Scott Lang is

our Scott Lang. Some people believe after Schrodinger's box in Quantummania, his mind was permanently altered, which would give way to why this scroll doesn't really know how to act because it could have possibly taken the mind of someone now completely broken and now believes Ant Man's actions will kill everyone on Earth, including his. own kind, the scrolls. At the birthday party, there's some purple references, even with the people walking down the street and people staring at him, somewhere purple like Kang's armor. There's too much creepy, longing paranoia, even when Scott tries to snap himself out of it. So some people think

he might be a scroll. I think he might be a scroll. That's it for my theory video on the first episode of Secret Invasion. We speculated who the scrolls are, the implications of Ross being a scroll in the series, and political warfare behind Grobock's future empire. Make sure to catch House of R's deep dive and the Midnight Boys' reaction to the first episode of Secret Invasion. Follow the Ringerverse on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Make sure to follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter at Ringerverse. And you can subscribe to us on YouTube at The Ringer. Thanks for watching and listening.

Be careful who you trust.