While there’s much that Marvel fans have been dying to know about the series, the most-discussed mystery concerning Secret Invasion has definitely been “who is Emilia Clarke playing?” As first revealed in the trailers, the Game of Thrones icon was playing a human (or, at least human-presenting) character, perhaps an agent of some kind going by her gun and action stance. This led to a lot of speculation that she could be S.W.O.R.D. operative Abigail Brand.
Thanks to a mind-blowing preview of Secret Invasion from Vanity Fair, however, which outlines multiple story and character details about the incoming Disney Plus show, we can now say this prediction was way, way off. VF confirms that Clarke is really playing a Skrull woman called G’iah (pronounced “Guy-ah”). What’s more, G’iah actually has a familial connection to another character in the series and has even appeared in the MCU before, making her franchise debut many years ago.
Yes, Clarke’s G’iah is the daughter of Talos, the surprisingly kindly Skrull leader played by Ben Mendelsohn, who’s serving as co-lead of Secret Invasion alongside Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. Although Clarke has not shown up in the MCU before, G’iah was previously glimpsed in 2019’s Captain Marvel, when Talos reunited with his wife and young child.
“Remember when Ben was there with his wife and daughter?” Jackson tells VF. “She’s the little Skrull girl grown up. She’s his daughter.”
It’s somewhat surprising that Marvel has decided to pull the chord on perhaps Secret Invasion‘s biggest mystery in this way, with some fans perhaps considering this information a spoiler. Another way of looking at it, though, is that if the studio is willing to drop this bombshell so casually at this point, imagine what much bigger surprises await us when the series premieres on Disney Plus (probably this June).