Secret Invasion wasted no time in leaving fans with their jaws on the floor. No, I’m not talking about that shocking pre-credits scene, but the opening credits themselves. Many viewers got a sense of the uncanny from watching the weird titles sequence, so it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that the whole thing was generated with A.I., which is the first time Marvel Studios has admitted to using artificial intelligence to create anything in one of its productions.
However, it’s not just its A.I. origins that makes Secret Invasion‘s opening a major Marvel TV first. It’s such a traditional fixture of watching a show that it might pass most fans by, but this is actually the first Marvel Disney Plus series to have its credits at the beginning of the episode instead of at the end. It’s been the format of every other previous MCU streaming show to keep the titles under the end of the episode.
Think WandaVision — who can forget to sitting through every end titles sequence of that show in the hopes of a juicy tag scene? — or Loki or She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. All of them leapt straight into the story and withheld the title card and the cast and crew credits until the episode’s conclusion. This was in keeping with the way Marvel Studios movies have a fancy credits sequence at the end, generally before a mid-credits scene occurs.
So what could be the significance of Secret Invasion adopting a traditional opening credits format? Well, it’s possibly a sly way of nodding to who everything’s been turned upside-down on the show, as familiar characters are outed as Skrulls and nothing can be trusted. Alternatively, it may be a sign that we shouldn’t expect any mid-credits scenes from this show. Why have the typical tag-teasing closing credits sequence if it’s not going to have any tags?
But this is a Marvel production, so that option seems somewhat unlikely. All we can be sure of with Secret Invasion is to expect the unexpected.