Nick Fury and his right-hand man Maria Hill have certainly come a long way since the first time we saw them get introduced on screen. Upon the debut of Secret Invasion on Disney Plus, things aren’t quite the same anymore between Fury and Hill.
Now, the question is, what happened to Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s relationship after The Blip? Are they actually dating in the MCU timeline?
WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Secret Invasion Episode 1, so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
How Close Are Nick Fury and Maria Hill?
Maria Hill and Nick Fury had this inseparable duo vibe going on since their live-action debut in Marvel’s The Avengers.
In fact, their relationship goes way beyond the surface, and to think that Marvel did a great job of having an in-depth presentation of how close they have grown together as a team. Take one scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home, for example.
When Nick Fury was well aware a missile had been shot at the supposed S.H.I.E.L.D. office, he was on call with Maria, as the duo talked: “You got me?” And without any hint of hesitation, Fury stood still as Hill shot the missile, saving him as she said, “I gotcha.”
In a 2020 interview for Spider-Man: Far From Home with Voyage, Samuel L. Jackson described the close relationship between Fury and Hill:
“[Maria Hill]’s the only person that actually calls me ‘Nick’. Everybody else refers to me as ‘Fury’. That means she’s pretty close to me.”
Not to mention, she trusted Fury so much, she even helped in faking his death when he was attacked by HYDRA as they worked together with Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon.
However, things have changed since Secret Invasion turned up.
ALSO READ: What You Need To Watch Before Secret Invasion
Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s Relationship Decline in Secret Invasion Explained
Nick Fury may have landed back on Earth after commandeering the Skrulls' space station, but things have changed since The Blip was finished.
As for Maria Hill, despite being the first to welcome him in her arms, specifically in a house in Moscow, Secret Invasion Episode 1 pretty much laid down how much distant they have grown over the past years.
As Samuel L. Jackson told Vanity Fair in a March 2023 interview:
“[Nick Fury] hasn’t been back on Earth in a minute. And as Cobie [Smulders] would say, she’s been trying to reach me and contact me, but I’ve been ignoring her messages.”
In the same interview, Smulders said:
“I think Maria Hill has really run out of patience. She’s always had this really close relationship with Nick Fury, [but] he’s been gone for so long and she’s just been running around putting out fires.”
On the first episode, in an attempt of rekindling their relationship, they play a game of chess, to which Maria noticed how Nick hesitated making the next move, a metaphor on how much he has changed.
Out of concern and frustration, Maria reveals how she sees Fury now: 3 years of no contact on Earth, not even with her, and lost faith in the planet altogether when Fury disappeared into the S.A.B.E.R.
She laid out her hypothesis of him. Fury had never been the same after The Blip and he was never three steps ahead as he used to be, leading her to believe he isn’t ready to fight the Secret Invasion.
Fury, of course, tries to deny this by claiming it was Maria who called him to return. When in reality, Maria said it was Talos who wanted Fury to come back.
What Is The Canon Relationship of Nick Fury and Maria Hill?
To be fair, any beginning fan would presume that what Nick Fury and Maria Hill had was special. It couldn’t be as simple as working alongside comrades, right?
Well, canonically, in the Marvel comics, Nick Fury’s love interest is La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who made her live appearance in the MCU in 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, 2021’s Black Widow, 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and soon in the upcoming film, Thunderbolts (set to release in 2024).
As for Maria Hill, we have yet to see her come to a potential love interest in the MCU, considering she is a career-led and goal-oriented woman rather than finding interest in expanding her personal life aside from helping Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.
However, in the Marvel comics, Hill did have a short time being romantically involved with Tony Stark.
So, as it seems to be, Maria Hill simply admired Nick Fury for his wit and outstanding plans for staying ahead of the game whenever they had to face battles.
As for the previous potentially romantic moments they shared, it is possible that it is only because of the married Skrulls who were ordered to disguise themselves as Nick and Maria.
Secret Invasion Episode 2 reveals more of the canon relationship between Nick and Maria when the latter's mother, Elizabeth Hill (Juliet Stevenson), appeared at her daughter's funeral and met with Fury to express her qualms:
"You're Nick Fury. Maria believed in you. She would've followed you to the gates of hell and back. Look, I don't know what Maria died for out there. But whatever it was, don't let it be for nothing."
Not to mention, in the same episode, Nick came home to a house we haven't seen in the MCU. We see a Skrull cooking, who reverted her skin back to being human when Nick came into her view.
As it turned out, Fury had been married this whole time to a woman named Priscilla Fury (played by Charlayne Woodard).
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