Talos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Talos from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here:Talos the Untamed.

Evil-doer

Talos
Keller
Nick Fury

Full Name

Talos

Alias

R. Keller

Soh-Larr
Nick Fury

Origin

Captain Marvel

Occupation

Skrull Council General

Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.(undercover)
Member of Nick Fury's Crew(all formerly)

Powers / Skills

Intelligence

Leadership
Marksmanship
Hand-to-hand combatant
Skrull-Physiology:
Superhuman strength
Superhuman durability
Shapeshifting

Goals

Invade Earth(allegedly).
Help Captain Marvel defeat the Kree.
Find a new home for the Skrulls.
DefeatYon-Rogg.
Save his family.
Impersonate Nick Fury in order to investigate the Elemental attacks.
Convince G'iah to return to his side.(all succeeded)
DefeatGravik and the Skrull Resistance from conquering Earth and killing the humans.(posthumously succeeded).

Crimes

War crimes

Kidnapping
Identity theft
Fraud
Espionage
Invasion
Murder
Conspiracy
False imprisonment
Vigilantism
Assault
Breaking and entering

Type of Villain

Honorable Alien Leader

“	Would you like to learn what you really are?	„
	~ Talos to Captain Marvel.

“	This is war. My hands are filthy from it too. But we’re here now. You found my family, and this is just the beginning.	„
	~ Talos

Talos is the tritagonist of the 2019Marvel Cinematic Universe filmCaptain Marvel, a major character in the 2019 filmSpider-Man: Far From Home, and the deuteragonist of the 2023Disney+ streaming miniseriesSecret Invasion.

He was aSkrull general and the leader of a refugee Skrull faction that stood against theKree Empire after their home world was destroyed. Talos was initially believed to be an evil general plotting to infiltrate and conquer Earth, but later it was revealed that he's a survivor trying to protect his people from theSupreme Intelligence who had deceivedCaptain Marvel into wrongfully hunting the Skrull refugees. After the Captain learned the truth she defected the Kree Empire and allied with the Skrulls to be their protector. After theStarforce's defeat, Talos remained in contact with Nick Fury, occasionally replacing the S.H.I.E.L.D. director when the latter was unavailable.

He was portrayed byBen Mendelsohn, who also playedJohn Daggett inThe Dark Knight Rises,Danny Rayburn inBloodline,Orson Krennic inRogue One: A Star Wars Story,Nolan Sorrento inReady Player One, theSheriff of Nottingham inRobin Hood,Special Agent Mace inInfinity Train andKillian inSpies in Disguise.

Biography[]

Beginnings[]

Talos started out a peaceful leader for the Skrulls until their homeworld planet was destroyed on the orders of theSupreme Intelligence due to the Skrulls' refusal to submit to the Kree's tyrannical rule. Ever since, Talos was forced into a violent war with the Kree while the Skrull survivors were spread across the galaxy, hiding in different planets by shape-shifting into said planet's native inhabitants. In response the Kree Empire began a slandering propaganda that depicted Skrulls as evil invaders trying to conquer the galaxy, causing most other planets to turn against the Skrulls unaware that they were refugees.

However, in 1989, Talos met up with Kree defector Mar-Vell, who created a Light-Speed Engine and a giant ship that could carry Skrull refugees far away to a new galaxy where they could find a new home planet without the Kree tracking them down.

Upon learning this, Talos got his wife Soren and their daughter along with several more Skrulls to board the ship to avoid being tracked down by the Kree. Unfortunately, the Superior Intelligence learned of Mar-Vell's intentions and orderedYon-Rogg to kill her and steal the Light Speed Engine for the Kree Empire to use. The engine was destroyed by Mar-Vell's pilot Carol Danvers, who absorbed the cosmic energy emitted from the explosion while losing her memories at the same time, prompting Yon-Rogg to take her in as his new protege. Due to Mar-Vell's death, Talos forced himself to engage in a war against the Kree in hopes of getting Carol so that he could find Mar-Vell's ship and rescue his family.

Tracking Down Vers[]

In 1995, Yon-Rogg and his teamStarforce learned that Kree spySoh-Larr was being held captive by Talos and his forces in the planet Torfa. However, they realized too late that Soh-Larr's supposed capture was all a set-up to lure Carol (now renamed Vers and brainwashed by the Supreme Intelligence into being the Kree's ultimate weapon) into the Skrulls' clutches, with Talos, disguised as Soh-Larr, capturing her. With that in mind, Talos ordered him to access Vers' memories, but this only infuriated Vers to free herself and engage in a battle, inadvertently causing Talos' ship to self-destruct. Talos and his remaining forces evacuated to Earth, where they learned that Vers was also taking refuge there. To avoid unwanted suspicion, Talos and Skrulls shapeshifted into human civilians. Upon learning that one of his fellow Skrulls died in a car crash following a fight against Vers and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Nick Fury, Talos impersonated S.H.I.E.L.D. director Keller and ordered Fury to track Vers down while mourning for his fallen comrade.

Fury later contacted Talos believing him to be director Keller, giving away Vers' location at a S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the two were investigating "Wendy Lawson", who Talos identified as Mar-Vell's alias when she was disguised as a human. Upon arriving, Talos called Fury "Nicholas", causing fury to realize that "Keller" was a Skrull since no one ever calls Fury by his first name. Talos realized that his cover was blown and attempted to kill Fury but was stopped by Vers. Fury and Vers then escaped to Louisiana to meet former pilot Maria Rambeau, the last person to see Vers and Mar-Vell alive. Meanwhile Talos found a black box detailing Mar-Vell and Vers' last conversation during the accident where Mar-Vell died.

With that information, Talos went to the Rambeau residence with his true form as a sign of a truce and played the recording for Fury and Vers, revealing them the truth about what truly happened, which made Vers regain her memories and realize that she was being used by the Superior Intelligence, as well as the fact that her name is Carol Danvers.

Fighting Against the Kree[]

Infuriated of being used by the Kree, Danvers defected to the Skrulls, even managing to help Talos track down Mar-Vell's ship containing the Skrulls refugees, including Talos' family. Unfortunately, Yon-Rogg and Starforce arrived at the ship after killingNorex and contactingRonan, and Talos was held prisoner along with his fellow Skrulls while Danvers was interrogated by the Superior Intelligence for her defection. Danvers was freed of the implant that was used to suppress her powers, allowing herself to free Fury, Maria and the Skrulls from captivity and have them evacuate back to Earth. As such, Talos helped evacuate his fellow Skrulls alongside Fury and Maria inside a ship back to Earth.

Finding a New Home[]

Following the defeats of Starforce and Ronan's fleets, Danvers, now going by the name "Captain Marvel", agreed to help Talos and the Skrulls find a new home planet to live. He was last seen piloting Mar-Vell's ship as he and his fellow Skrulls waved to Captain Marvel as they headed off in the search of a new home.

Monitoring Spider-Man[]

Following the deaths ofThanos and theBlack Order in 2023, Talos and his wife Soren were hired to pose themselves as Fury and his assistant Maria Hill while the real Fury and Hill were going on vacation with the Skrulls. Through their disguises, Talos and Soren learned that a group of giant beings called theElementals have came from an alternate dimension attacking several cities and that a warrior namedMysterio had been fighting them. To that end, Talos and Soren enlisted Spider-Man to help out Mysterio in destroying the Elementals due to most other heroes being being unavailable.

However, Talos, Soren and Spider-Man learned that the Elementals were just holograms that Mysterio (who turned out to be a disgraced Stark Industries employee) was using to stage the attacks by using attack drones camouflaged inside the holograms in order to cement himself as a hero to the public. Eventually, Spider-Man managed to defeat Mysterio, who ends up being killed by misfire from one of the drones.

Despite being delighted that Spider-Man has defeated Mysterio for good, Talos and Soren are completely horrified to learn that Mysterio's cohorts (mostlyWilliam Ginter Riva,Guterman,Janice Lincoln,Victoria Snow andDoug) have leaked doctored footage of the battle of London framing Spider-Man for the attacks and exposing his identity as Peter Parker in revenge for Mysterio's death. As such, Talos and Soren contacted Fury about the situation, prompting a determined Fury to go back to Earth to take action.

Secret Invasion[]

InSecret Invasion, Talos has been removed from his leadership role and a rogue Skrull faction led byGravik is formed on a base, New Skrullos, in Russia with intentions to take Earth as their new home. Talos calls Fury for help and he returns from space, learning that rogue Skrulls have kidnapped world officials and replaced them, including James Rhodes and Everett Ross. Talos tells him that following the Blip, he summoned one million Skrull refugees to live on Earth. Angry that Fury failed on his promise to take care of them, Gravik orchestrates several terroristic attacks across many continents as false flag attacks, kills Hill, Soren, Talos and other Skrulls that try to rebel against him, and attempts to instigate World War III. He and G'iah, Talos' daughter, use a machine to acquire the DNA from members of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Black Order, and other enhanced individuals and become Super-Skrulls. G'iah ultimately kills Gravik, Fury killsRaava, Rhodes' imposter, and the rogue faction becomes defunct. In response to the invasion, the U.S. President initiates the Anti-Alien Act deeming Skrulls and other aliens public enemies. G'iah is recruited into MI6, while Fury's wife, Varra, joins him in space with S.A.B.E.R..

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The promotional material ofCaptain Marvel depicted Talos as the main antagonist of the movie before the twist that the Skrulls were the true victims of the conflict was revealed and Talos is actually a hero.
- This matched the movie's recurring theme of not judging people based on first impressions, with the Skrulls themselves being shapeshifters who where mistakenly seen as evil by the movie's characters before learning the truth about them being refugees.
- Talos does act antagonistic towards the main characters prior to them realizing that they were being deceived by the Kree empire.
Unlike his comics counterpart, this version of Talos can still shapeshift and hasn't been granted his title "the Untamed".
Captain Marvel andSpider-Man: Far From Home, both of which Talos appeared in, came out in 2019.