Samuel L. Jackson’s return as former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury is off to a bad start. With only two episodes airing so far, the Disney+ series is already one of the worst-rated MCU shows ever.
- Secret Invasion is one of the worst-rated MCU TV shows with a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
- The show has the second lowest viewership for an MCU TV show season premiere.
- The low ratings and viewership may suggest superhero fatigue among audiences.
- Disney plans to space out its TV shows to improve content quality on its streaming platform.
- Secret Invasion still has four more episodes to air.
Secret Invasion is currently the third worst-rated MCU TV series and is only ahead of Iron Fist and Inhumans. Currently, the Nick Fury-led Disney+ series has a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 121 critics and an audience score of 73%.
While 63% is still “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, the rating is quite bad when compared to other MCU TV shows, especially the ones that are part of The Multiverse Saga. The show is rated lower than She-Hulk (80%), which was criticized for its CGI, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (84%).
Inhumans received the worst ratings ever at 11% while Iron Fist comes in as second worst, receiving a rating of 37%. Ms. Marvel and Agents of SHIELD are the best-rated shows with ratings of 98% and 95% respectively.
It is surprising that Secret Invasion has gotten such low ratings given that it is the first MCU TV series to premiere this year. Marvel has billed the show as a serious spy drama but all the hype hasn’t translated into better ratings.
Interestingly, Samba TV tracked the premiere of all MCU Disney+ shows and the first episode of Secret Invasion had the second lowest viewership with 994,000 within the first five days. It is the second worst premiere and is only ahead of Ms. Marvel which debuted with 775,000.
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki had the most viewers in the first five days with 2.5 million. The God of Mischief is a very popular character among MCU fans. Moon Knight and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are tied for second place with 1.8 million viewers in the first five days of the series premiere.
The lower ratings and viewership for Secret Invasion may suggest Superhero fatigue for audiences. Marvel pumped out a total of nine TV shows for Phase 4 from January 2021 to October 2022.
Disney is changing its approach and will be spacing out its TV shows in a bid to improving the quality of its content on its streaming platform. This year, only Secret Invasion and Loki season 2 are the new TV shows coming to Disney+. Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Daredevil: Born Again, Ironheart, and Echo have reportedly pushed back to 2024.
Secret Invasion still has 4 more episodes that have yet to air, so it’ll be interesting to see the ratings climb as more episodes are released.
Secret Invasion is available for streaming on Disney+ with new episodes every Wednesday.
