'Secret Invasion': Is SPOILER Really Dead? These Theories Provide Hope For The Fan Favourite

WARNING: SPOILERS for Secret Invasion 1x01, 'Resurrection'.

While 2023 has been a quiet year thus far for new Marvel TV shows on Disney Plus, Secret Invasion, the first series in Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has arrived, and it did so with a bang.. literally.

Having spent an extended period of time away from Earth since the reversal of The Blip, Nick Fury is forced to return to thwart an uprising of young rebel Skrulls. Led by Gravik, the Skrulls are angry at Fury and Carol Danvers unfulfilled promise to find them a new home, and have been secretly infiltrating Earth in a plot to take the planet for themselves. Working off-grid, Fury's only help comes from his long-time Skrull ally, Talos, and one remaining loyal former SHIELD agent, Maria Hill.

Last chance to avoid SPOILERS.

In a deeply unsettling sequence, the trio fail to stop Gravik's forces from carrying out a bombing in Moscow, and in the chaotic aftermath, Gravik, posing as Fury, shoots Agent Hill in the gut. Hill appears to die in the real Nick Fury's arms in the episode's closing moments.

The loss of Agent Hill has been a shock to fans, both due to her long tenure in the MCU, and the widespread belief before the series premiere that she was to feature as one of the major players in Secret Invasion. In fact, many fans had her pegged as a prime candidate to be exposed as a secret Skrull during the series. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case.. Hill's body did not revert to Skrull form, which would usually occur just moments after a transformed Skrull's death. Despite this, desperate fans have formed some theories that Maria Hill is not, or at least will not stay, dead. Let's look at the two most common ones.

1. The dead Agent Hill was actually a Life Model Decoy

In the comics, Life Model Decoys are advanced life-like androids often used to stand in for various characters. To the naked eye, LMDs are virtually indistinguishable from the person they are replicating except in the event that they are damaged. LMDs are first mentioned in the MCU as a throwaway joke by Tony Stark in the first Avengers film, when he claims to be one in a failed attempt to dodge Agent Coulson's phone call.

Aside from this, LMDs have really only featured in the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series.

While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was eventually nudged into Multiverse territory, there is no real reason why elements of the series can't eventually creep back into the main MCU timeline. Fans had already pointed to Secret Invasion as a likely place for this potential reintegration to begin, and this has now led to the theory that the Agent Hill we saw die in Secret Invasion was actually a Life Model Decoy.

Such a reveal would not be entirely without precedent. At one point in the adaptation of the 'Secret Invasion' storyline seen in the popular animated series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Maria Hill, here the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D in Nick Fury's absence, is shot by a Skrull Impostor, followed by the immediate reveal that this Hill was an LMD, with the real Hill monitoring events from elsewhere.

Unfortunately, there is one main point against this theory being in play in the in the MCU. In most versions of Marvel canon, an LMD, despite being indistinguishable prior, is obviously mechanical once destroyed or damaged. This does not appear to be the case following Hill's shooting in Secret Invasion.

2. Hill is in need of a trip to TAHITI

Longtime MCU fans will be well aware that Hill's apparent death is sadly not the first time Nick Fury has lost someone he considered his closest ally. Prior to Maria Hill's MCU debut in The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson was Fury's most loyal associate, or, as some called him, his 'One good eye'. Coulson appears in nearly every film of Phase One, and his death at Loki's hand in The Avengers becomes the event that finally unifies the bickering heroes as a true team.

However, the series premiere of the then-canon Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D reveals that Coulson is alive, and, oddly, entirely unaware that he had died. In early episodes, it is regularly stated that Coulson had recently returned from a vacation in Tahiti, but cannot remember this vacation, and, after finding other gaps in his memory, begins to investigate. He eventually discovers that he had been the head of Project T.A.H.I.T.I, a secret experiment involving the use of a drug made from alien Kree blood, that could potentially resurrect the dead.

While the drug technically worked, the initial test subjects suffered from severe mental deterioration. Coulson deemed the project too dangerous and had it shut down, with the caveat that it could be implemented in the most drastic of emergencies, ie, the death of an Avenger.

Nick Fury, however, deemed Coulson just as important as the Avengers, and used his position to override the recommendations, reactivating Project T.A.H.I.T.I in order to resurrect Agent Coulson following his death in The Avengers. Coulson's memory of his death and the project were wiped, and Fury tasked Agent Melinda May with watching over him for side-effects.

Though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, as mentioned earlier, now exists in the multiverse, it's official divergence from the main timeline did not occur until the latter half of the series run, leaving some fans to theorise that the show's earlier events, such as the reveal of Project T.A.H.I.T.I's existence, are still possibly in play in the MCU. If this is in fact the case, Fury, unwilling to lose another of his shrinking circle of trusted allies, could turn to the project in an attempt to save Agent Hill. If this does occur, it could cause a few issues as Secret Invasion moves forward, such as the potential side effects, or if Talos objects to the reckless use of Kree blood, given they are an enemy of the Skrulls.

Either way, Secret Invasion has us hooked, and we can't wait to see what happens next.