Marvel's 'Secret Invasion' Review-Bombed by Critics, Becomes Worst-Rated MCU Show

Things aren’t looking too good for Marvel’s Secret Invasion after critics responded poorly to the show’s first two episodes at an early screening, making it the franchise’s lowest-rated series to date—yes, even beating out She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Samuel L. Jackson is finally the leading man of an MCU project in Secret Invasion, which is set to arrive on Disney’s streaming platform later this month. The actor reprises his role as former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, alongside an all-star cast from the likes of Olivia Colman, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, and Don Cheadle.

The espionage-thriller series will follow Fury and his allies as they return to Earth to stop an escalating war between humanity and a radicalized group of disgruntled Skrull refugees, who have been essentially homeless since losing their native planet to the Kree in 2019’s Captain Marvel. Along the way, Fury will discover that not everything is as it seems.

Check out the official trailer for Marvel’s Secret Invasion below:

But in the wake of its first screenings, Marvel’s newest Disney+ show hasn’t exactly won critics, earning Secret Invasion the unfortunate title of worst-reviewed MCU series so far on Rotten Tomatoes. Currently, the series sits at a 67% rating, based on 33 critic reviews.

Although some early viewers had high praise for the show, like Inverse‘s Lyvie Scott, who wrote, “Not since The Winter Soldier has the MCU juggled conspiracy, pulp, and paranoia so effectively,” others weren’t so enamored by Secret Invasion.

SuperHeroHype‘s Luke Y. Thompson compared the show’s tone to the Star Wars spinoff, Andor, saying, “Secret Invasion plainly would like to be the MCU’s Andor. The ‘mature,’ ‘serious’ show for people who generally bash the rest of the franchise for its CG and whimsy.”

Meanwhile, Untitled Movie Podcast critic Eric Marchen called the new addition to the MCU’s Disney+ catalog “sluggish,” writing, “A sluggish start to Marvel’s paranoid sci-fi thriller falls flat when grounding the geopolitical material in spycraft minutia.”

Credit: Marvel Studios Comparatively, previous Marvel series like WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel all scored above a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, pointing to trouble ahead for the Samuel L. Jackson-led series. Even She-Hulk, which held the crown for worst-rated MCU show before Secret Invasion, currently sits at an 80% rating.

So what does this mean for Secret Invasion? Well, not much. It’s important to note that critics’ reviews were based on just two episodes, not the entire season. It’s safe to assume that the story will pick up speed as new episodes continue to roll out every week. Besides, it’s difficult to judge the quality of a show off of just two episodes, so take these reviews with a grain of salt.

Obviously, reviews like this are entirely based on personal preference, and audiences will likely have a completely different response to Secret Invasion when it lands on the streaming platform in a matter of days.

For now, it’ll be interesting to see if Secret Invasion can get its ratings up as more critics get the opportunity to see it or if the new series will go down in history as one of the biggest Marvel misfires of all time.

What do you think of Secret Invasion‘s first two episodes flopping with critics? Let us know in the comments below.