Game of Thrones fans will always remember Emilia Clarke for playing the iconic Daenerys Targaryen. But she’s also had a stop-over in the galaxy far, far away as Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and will next appear alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Olivia Colman in the upcoming Marvel series Secret Invasion. That’s a lot of feathers in her cap.
ComicBook.com caught up with Clarke to ask what drew her to the Marvel series. It sounds like this has been a long time coming for her. “I grew up reading fantasy fiction, so I know that’s not the same as the actual comic book itself, but that was where my imagination lived,” she said. “And so, then reading about superheroes for the first time, I’m pretty sure it was Superman that was my first ever. And Spider-Man, I kind of thought he was pretty cool. Spider-Man was the first origin story that I remember as a child reading and being like, ‘Oh wow, this is more than what’s on the page. This is a bigger world,’ and then being allowed into that.”
"My true understanding of the scope of this world happened when I started doing comic cons. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, my God, where have you all been? This is madness.’ There’s so much. There’s so much there. And then obviously, now the rise of the blockbuster movie, specifically only being comics. That’s what the entire space encompasses. No longer have you got the blockbuster movie with all of the movie stars in it. You now have the movie star as the IP. The movie star is the thing."
It sounds like Clarke has thought a lot about the role of comic books in modern entertainment. And if you want to be a part of the most exciting comic book adaptations around right now, you want to be a part of Marvel. “I just think what they’re doing right now is so exciting and so cool, and so on the cutting edge of it,” she said. “To be part of that family feels like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in the cool kid crowd. That’s so cool.'”
"Honestly speaking, the people that are making this are what pushed me over the line to really wanting to do it. I just think that everyone’s heart and heads are in the right place with this one."
So far as Disney+ series go, Marvel is two for two with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. There’s a while to go before Secret Invasion comes out — it won’t be this year, at any rate — but hopefully that momentum is still going strong when it does.
Who does Emilia Clarke play in Secret Invasion?
As for what actually happens in Secret Invasion, we don’t know. Presumably, it’s about Nick Fury (Jackson) dealing with the alien Skrulls as they try to invade Earth by replacing important humans with members of their own kind — it’s a secret invasion, if you will. What side of the battle with Clarke’s character be on? Stay tuned.
In the meantime, Clarke is channeling her love of comics into an original comic book called M.O.M.: Mother of Madness, the first issue of which hits stands on Wednesday, July 21. Find out all about it:
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