7 Avengers Who Are Probably Skrulls In Avengers: Endgame
So the Captain Marvel movie will be adapting a pretty interesting tale from the comics known as the Kree-Skrull War, a tale that encompasses two races of aliens trying to kill each other and dragging our world into the mix (you know, the usual stuff). We’ve already met one of the races participating in the form of the Kree. For the most part, they’re blue-skinned individuals who see themselves as a proud, noble warrior race. Ronan The Accuser, the villain who terrorized the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, happened to be one of the Kree (before the Power Stone made him explode). Captain Marvel believes the Kree to be a race of noble warrior heroes, but Ronin should give you an idea of what they’re really like.
But enough about the Kree because they're not as interesting as their opposition. The Skrulls are the ones who promise to bring even more zest to the already explosive cinematic universe. The Skrulls are a race of shapeshifters who used to peaceful until they crossed paths with the Kree (again another indication about the Kree’s true nature). Then they got wrapped up into a war with them a became a warrior race themselves.
Their shape-shifting abilities grant them a variety of talents and powers because they can mimic whoever the heck they happen to come across. They do have some limitations, however, as there are only a select few Skrulls who can copy an individual so perfectly that they gain their abilities along with their appearance, but the general Skrull can use their inherent talent to copy an individual down to even their memories. Considering the Skrulls mission is to take over planets and expand their empire, this is an incredibly dangerous ability for them to have. In fact, they’ve used this handy trick of theirs to take over hundreds of different worlds. They infiltrate planets by replacing individuals with power and influence, or individuals who have easy access to these individuals. Once they’ve spent enough time learning about the race they plan on conquering--they strike, and when they do, rarely anyone ever sees it coming.
We bring all of this up because the Skrulls do exactly this in the Marvel event known as the Secret Invasion, a follow-up tale to the Kree-Skrull War. In Secret Invasion, the Skrulls replace multiple different heroes with themselves after having taken on their appearance and lives. They sow so much discord and chaos among the heroes that no knows who they can trust, some characters are even made to believe that they can’t trust themselves. With Captain Marvel adapting the prelude to Secret Invasion and being the prelude to Avengers Endgame--the movie that will wrap up the Infinity Stone stroy--and taking place as far back as the 1990’s, it’s only natural to wonder if the Skrulls who invaded the world decided to stick around after the events of Captain Marvel and swamp out certain members of the human race for themselves. If so, who would be--oh, who would it be.
We have seven different characters in mind that we think would make the most sense and do the most damage if they did happen to turn out to be green on the inside. Hulk is not this list. Actually, just to get it out of the way, neither are Iron Man, Captain America, or Thor, namely because after investing ten years worth of emotions and time into these characters, (and just considering their overall stories) it wouldn’t make a lick of sense for any of them to turn out to be Skrulls. Black Widow is getting her own movie here soon, so revealing her as a Skrull also wouldn't make sense. Nick Fury is also out since he assembled the Avengers in the first place, which is the exact opposite of what a Skrull would do.
Let’s get on with it.
Cameron Klein
Don’t know who this is? That’s fantastic--that just means he’s one of the better options to be a Skrull: he’s unrecognizable, doesn’t draw a lot of attention, and yet he holds a lot of weight.
Here’s a refresher: Cameron Klein is a character who first appeared in Captain America: Civil War as a redshirt who made the brave decision to stand by Captain America and die rather than help Hydra kill a bunch of people. He was spared when agent Sharon Carter came to his rescue. His bravery helped earn him a spot serving directly under Nick Fury, as we next see him in Age of Ultron helping to evacuate Sokovia under Nick’s orders.
See where we’re going with this?
Cameron has earned Nick Fury’s--the previous director of S.H.I.E.L.D’s--trust. Nick Fury’s influence is nothing to scoff at, and the secrets he holds about the planet are even greater, and Cameron has a direct link to him. Nick trust Cameron so much, in fact, that when he realized crap had hit the fan in Infinity War, the first person he told Mariah Hill to contact was Cameron. Both Fury and Hill are gone now because of the snap, so Cameron is the only link the Avengers have to Nick’s plans. That’s a lot of power for a Skrull to have.
Mariah Hill
Cameron Klein would be one thing, but Mariah Hill is an entirely different monster. Nick already has trust issues from dealing with the Skrulls back in Captain Marvel, so could you imagine what would happen if it turned out his right-hand woman for all this time just so happened to be a Skrull herself? We don’t get to see a lot of emotion elicited from one-eyed Nick, but we may get something if Mariah turns out to be a pointy-eared double-agent. He literally trusted her with his life back in the Winter Soldier when Hydra was trying to assassinate him. She’s so good at what she does in fact, that not even Black Widow suspected her when she posed as a transport guard and saved Cap, Widow, and Falcon from Hydra.
Unlike Klein, Mariah is also connected to a lot more than just Nick Fury; she’s even friends with most of the Avengers--like with Black Widow and Captain America--and she’s a pretty recognizable face to most of the MCU audience.
Plus, because of her long-standing relationship with Fury, she’s had her hand in information cookie jars all across the world. Ties to most of the main characters, power, and influence--Mariah meets all the markers to have a great Skrull twist reveal.
James Rhodes
If the goal for the Skrulls is to take over the world from within by exploiting positions of power, then James Rhodes is easily the best candidate for them to replace, and like Mariah--from a storytelling standpoint--would be an incredible reveal. He’s not too high up on the Marvel food chain to where his reveal wouldn’t make any sense (the exact opposite actually), and he has enough influence where it counts to be incredibly dangerous.
Stark Industries is one of the biggest companies on the planet, and home to one of the greatest weapons ever created on earth in the form the Iron Man armor. Gaining access to this place would be a great way to take over the world. Rhodey has this through Tony Stark. On top of that, Rhodey is a high-ranking Air Force official. The man can call off air strikes if he wants.
And let’s just take a look at what a Skrull reveal from him would do to Tony’s character. Tony just watched his surrogate son die; someone he considered a friend kept from him the fact that his parents were conspiratorially murdered; now his best friend in the world isn’t even real? That’s going to screw him up on so many levels it’ll be amazing to see how his character arcs and bounces back from it.
Happy Hogan
Happy has been around in the MCU since its inception and is not only the head of Tony Stark's security force but is also Tony's friend. Tony trusts him with handling most of the Avengers equipment and weapons, and he’s pretty familiar with how Stark Industries operates--same as Rhodey. He would probably have the same effect on Tony that Rhodey would have as well.
However, what Rhodey doesn’t have that Happy does is a connection to Peter Parker. Happy has had a lot of interaction with Peter since Homecoming and will apparently get even closer to Peter and his family in Far From Home, considering he and Aunt May seem to have a fling going on.
Happy’s turning out to be another father/mentor figure to Peter; he’s even given him voiceover advice in the Far From Home trailer. The closer he gets, the more devastating it will be to both Peter and Aunt May when it turns out that he’s not who he claims to be. Considering Peter’s track record with father figures--his actually Dad being dead, his Uncle Ben having been murdered, and his high school crush’s Dad trying to kill him for all the wrong reasons, it wouldn’t be abnormal for Happy to turn around and betray him. At least Tony’s always got his back.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye is actually one of the more popular choices to be a Skrull if not one of the weaker ones. He was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who worked closely under Nick Fury, and he’s an O.G. Avenger. He was even surprisingly absent form Infinity War despite it being the biggest near-apocalyptic event that has ever happened. Considering Hawkeye came out of retirement in Civil War just to help Captain America fight against his friends and government, it doesn’t make much sense at all for him to sit out on something this important, especially when you consider the fact that every hero and their mom showed up for the Infinity War event (aside from Ant-Man, but he missed out because he had his own thing going on). So what if Hawkeye wasn’t in Infinity War because he was too busy being abducted and replaced?
This would be an interesting prospect. But the thing about it is--the Endgame trailer showed Hawkeye off as Ronan to the voiceover line of, “We lost family," meaning he’s probably the real deal since it would be a waste of a story arc to kill off his family and adapt his darker persona only to just reveal that he’s a Skrull. Basically, Hawkeye has too much going on with him at the moment to be Skrull.
General Ross
Ross is probably the most suspicious person on this list. From the Incredible Hulk to Civil War, Ross has had one of the most 360 personality changes in the MCU. He’s gone from being a guy who wanted to create and utilize super soldiers, to being a guy who wants to suppress superhumans. That seems like a pretty Skrull thing to do. When you tack on the fact that he left the army and ended up landing a job as the Secretary of State--a high position of governmental power--it only looks more like he’s a Skrull. Add onto this even further by recognizing the fact that Ross is the one behind the very bill that tore apart the Avengers--the greatest defense Earth has against, say, a Skrull invasion--and the scales tip even closer in the favor that Ross is, in fact, a Skrull. To go even further beyond, Ross just so happens to suddenly make an appearance in Civil War after not having shown up in the MCU at all for over eight years, and now he's suddenly in a position of power great enough to tear apart the most powerful team on earth? The Skrull posing as him may as well be walking around in their natural form.
Everett K. Ross
Finally, we have Everett K. Ross, the N.S.A. agent known for being the only United States government official to ever set foot in Wakanda--the greatest technological nation on the planet. With everything else we’ve gone over, does this one even need explaining as to why he’s a Skrull?
