Marvel Would Only Bring Samuel L. Jackson Back As Nick Fury Under One Condition
Secret Invasion brings back Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the role of a lone wolf neo-noir spy operative.
Marvel has been playing it fast and loose with their on-air talent this year, with tales of Charlize Theron patiently awaiting a call back from the major studio to rumors that fully produced films and series are still in danger of being axed from the upcoming content lineup. According to a recent issue of Total Film Magazine, Samuel L Jackson was nearly prevented from returning to the MCU unless his character could meet very stringent conditions. Apparently, the higher-ups at Marvel didn’t want to see Nick Fury return to the big screen unless they could find a way to write his character into a lone wolf arc in a film-noir capacity.
When last we saw Samuel L Jackson don the iconic eye patch and take his place as the shadowy espionage figure of Nick Fury, he was taking an extra-planetary vacation in the vacuum of space while a pair of Skrulls replaced him and his associate, Cobie Smulders’ Agent Maria Hill, back on Earth. That was all the way in the distant past of 2019, with over a dozen Marvel projects having aired since, leaving fans to wonder just when we’ll see the real Nick Fury again. According to the director of the long-awaited Secret Invasion series, the delay was an intentional move from Disney.
After having its release schedule pushed back a number of times, Secret Invasion is finally slated to begin airing on Disney+ beginning on June 21, marking the first time in the MCU that Samuel L Jackson will appear as the lead actor in a Marvel project. Finally, after all this waiting, director Ali Selim confirmed that Marvel wanted to pull the trigger on the project until they could ensure that Jackson’s Nick Fury would return as a film-noir character.
Despite working with large corporate entities such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the U.S. Army, Fury has always seemed like a lone wolf, rarely, if ever, trusting other characters or operations unless he had fervently vetted their credentials himself.
This makes it an odd choice for Marvel to hold off on the return of the fan-favorite character, as most fans likely wouldn’t have questioned his status as a neo-noir figure to begin with. Of course, Marvel’s choice to withhold Samuel L Jackson for a number of years has made his long-awaited MCU return that much more special, causing many fans online to swarm at the idea of catching Secret Invasion the moment it becomes available on the streamer.
This is an excellent strategy to combat superhero fatigue, which industry insiders such as James Gunn have cited as a key cause for Marvel’s recent underwhelming output.
The only questions left to answer now are, why did Nick Fury stay off-planet for so long within the narrative of the MCU? Which Marvel heroes from previous outings are set to appear in the limited series? And what role will Samuel L Jackson’s character play in the upcoming war against Kang the Conqueror? For now, only time will tell, but fans can rest assured that answers will begin to form as early as June 21 when Secret Invasion lands on Disney+.
