MCU Theory: Secret Invasion Teased The Captain America: Brave New World Plot

Contains spoilers for "Secret Invasion" Season 1, Episode 5 — "Harvest"

"Secret Invasion" Episode 5, aptly named "Harvest," reveals that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his Skrull accomplices collected a vast amount of Avengers DNA shortly after the events of "Avengers: Endgame," when practically every combatant in the Battle of Earth spilled blood somewhere across the battlefield.

Nicknamed "the Harvest," until now this collection of superhero DNA was known only to Fury and the Skrull rebel leader, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), the latter of whom used a similar concept to pioneer his "Super Skrull” machine in order to enhance Skrull DNA with superpowers. Aside from the fact that collecting your friends' DNA is a massive breach of trust on the part of Fury (who might actually suck as a spy), it also opens up a lot of intriguing opportunities for future MCU projects.

Chief among these is the highly-anticipated "Captain America: Brave New World," which serves as the feature film debut of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as Captain America, and could actually feature the Harvest as a major component of its story. As we've pointed out in the past, the "Brave New World" subtitle appears to come from the Marvel Comics storyline "Secret Empire: Brave New World," which centers around an evil version of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) that was created by Hydra. Because the Harvest likely contains some of Rogers' DNA, it's entirely possible some new villain could use the Harvest to create an evil version of the original Captain America in order to pit him against Sam Wilson and company.

While it might seem like a stretch to suggest that "Captain America: Brave New World" will introduce a sadistic version of Steve Rogers, as long as the Harvest remains intact, practically any Avenger could be cloned or recreated in future MCU projects.

If "Brave New World" does choose to center around an evil clone of the First Avenger, using the Harvest would certainly be much more straightforward than the way Hydra's Cap is introduced in the comics. In the "Secret Empire" storyline, Red Skull manipulates a sentient, S.H.I.E.L.D.-constructed Cosmic Cube named Kobik into shifting reality and replacing Captain America with an evil, Hydra-loyal version of himself. Kobik's interference with reality is so complete, it actually created an alternate timeline in which Steve Rogers was abducted by Hydra and indoctrinated at a young age.

The original "Secret Empire" story follows this evil version of Cap as he masterminds a complete Hydra takeover of the United States government, dispatching most of the Avengers and establishing himself as the Supreme Leader of Hydra and the United States. "Secret Empire: Brave New World" is actually a collection of stories that show Earth's heroes reacting to this takeover, and while Sam Wilson does not factor into the "Brave New World" storyline in the comics, he is a major player in the rest of the "Secret Empire" story arc. As such, it's very possible that Wilson's story from that arc may be adapted into "Captain America: Brave New World." While we don't know for sure how the Harvest will factor into the larger MCU story, its existence means that any one of the Avengers could reappear as evil clones in the future –- including Evans' fan-favorite Steve Rogers.