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The following story contains major spoilers for Secret Invasion Episode 2, "Promises."
MUCH LIKE Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one of the very best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Secret Invasion takes influence from paranoid political spy thrillers of the '70s such as The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. That means going on a twisty, turny, wild adventure with a lead protagonist we trust, and it means twists—lots and lots of twists. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is our lead here, and through only two episodes, we've already seen the game change and change again, with reveals that set the rest of Secret Invasion up for a wild ride.
Where the show's first episode ended with a mortal twist that left Fury with a wide-open emotional wound—Maria Hill's death—the second episode ended with a dual reveal that's a little more complicated.
As Fury pulls up the driveway of a lovely looking home, secluded in a quasi-wooded area somewhere, we see a Skrull chopping vegetables. Fury walks in, and we have no idea who he's going to see—until the Skrull, now transformed into a woman, tells him he's missing something: his wedding ring.
That's right—Nick Fury is married. That's the first twist. But the second twist is one that we're not even sure he knows: his wife is a Skrull. What kind of impact will this have on Secret Invasion going forward? Is Nick's wife, whose name is revealed to be Priscilla in the episode's closing credits, team Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) or team Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) as far as the growing internal Skrull struggle? Does she even know such a thing is going on?
There are lots of questions to be asked at this time, and only a few that we can really answer.
Is Nick Fury married?
He is, apparently! We discover at the end of "Promises" that Nick Fury has a wife named Priscilla. Priscilla lives a beautiful modernist home where she apparently enjoys spending her time chopping cucumbers and listening to the smooth music of Otis Redding.
While this is obviously something of an MCU retcon, it's one that doesn't take much suspension of disbelief to buy into. Fury is someone constantly on extremely dangerous missions and who encounters even more dangerous enemies; the less people (even his allies) know about his personal life, the better. Can you imagine how many people would try to hurt/kidnap/threaten Priscilla if they knew she existed? It's in everyone's best interest that their relationship remain a secret .
As wonderfully written brief moment in the kitchen shows, Nick and Priscilla clearly have a deal: he doesn't have to wear his wedding ring outside of the house. Priscilla gets that. But at home? They are married, baby. And there's no hiding that. As soon as he gets home, it's time to give the Mrs. a big smooch (just in case we couldn't figure out already that they are M-A-R-R-I-E-D).
That's the part of the "Promises" twist that Nick knows, that we didn't. But there's a twist here, too, that it doesn't seem like he knows.
Does Nick Fury know that his wife, Priscilla, is a Skrull?
We can't say for sure. But considering the fact that Priscilla was cutting veggies in her Skrull form and transformed back into her human skin just as Nick got home... it would be a reasonable jump to believe that Nick doesn't know Priscilla is a Skrull. And what kind of splinter would it put into their relationship once that status is revealed? Clearly, Nick is cool with the Skrulls—Talos is one of his closest friends and allies. But this could be long-level deception, and it's possible that Priscilla is even on Gravik's side in this burgeoning war for the planet.
That said, it's also possible that Nick entirely does know that his wife is a Skrull. He's cool with them, after all—when they aren't setting off bombs and killing 2,000 people, that is.
But with the entire theme of Secret Invasion being people not turning out to really be who they say they are? We're going to lean toward thinking that Nick doesn't have a clue about Priscilla's true identity.
Is Priscilla Fury in the Marvel Comics?
Priscilla Fury is not a character in the Marvel Comics—she's been created just for the MCU.
That being said, it's worth noting that Nick Fury does have a decades-long, on-again, off-again, torrid romantic affair with someone: the Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. Of course, Valentina (commonly called 'Val') was introduced into the MCU back in 2021, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and presented as something of an evil version of Nick Fury; we've seen her recruiting John Walker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Yelena in Black Widow, and she'll continue to bring that team of rogues together in 2024's Thunderbolts film.
Val also appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, though, where it's revealed that in the MCU she's actually the ex-wife of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman). So, it's possible that the Val/Fury affair of the comics has been replaced with the Val/Ross crumbled marriage of the movies.
And, so, that's why Nick is with Priscilla in Secret Invasion.
(There is a Marvel Comics character named Priscilla—Priscilla Lyons—who went by the superhero name Vagabond and was around during Captain America's Nomad era in the '80s. But that doesn't seem to particularly connect here.)
Priscilla Fury is played by Charlayne Woodard
Priscilla is played by actress Charlayne Woodard, who over the course of her 45-year on-screen career has appeared in all sorts of film and television roles in addition to being a Tony nominee for her work on the stage.
She was a main cast member in Ryan Murphy's Pose, and has appeared as a guest star in shows like Taxi, Frasier, The Leftovers, and In Treatment. She's also appeared in many movies, perhaps most notably, for the purpose of Secret Invasion, playing Mrs. Price alongside Samuel L. Jackson in the connected M. Night Shyamalan films Unbreakable and Glass.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
