The Wild True Story Behind Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury Casting

It’s no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a stacked roster of talent, including but not limited to acting legend Samuel L. Jackson, who portrays S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. What you may not know is how he landed the signature role.

Thanks to a recent tweet, Jackson’s entrance into the MCU is getting renewed interest. So, we did a little digging to find out how this iconic star made his way into one of Hollywood’s most coveted franchises.

The story goes like this: When Marvel published The Ultimates in 2002, the series introduced a redesigned Nick Fury who looked a lot like Jackson. This was done on purpose as writer Mark Millar has said took a liking to the legendary actor, describing him in a later interview as the “coolest” person. However, what they didn’t take into account at the time was that you couldn’t just willy-nilly use an actor’s likeness without their knowledge and without some sort of consequence.

Related: Samuel L. Jackson Discusses His Fate as Nick Fury in Marvel’s Phase Four

So, when Jackson—an avid comic book fan—just so happened to stumble across the series at his local comic book shop and saw the new Nick Fury, he immediately began making phone calls. Instead of filing a lawsuit, Jackson walked away with a movie deal.

“When I picked up that comic in the comic store, it was kind of like ‘I don’t remember giving anybody the rights to use my image in a comic book.’ So I called my managers and agents, and they checked in with Marvel, and they said, ‘We’re thinking of making a movie, and we hope it’ll be with him,’” Jackson explained in a 2019 interview with ODEON Cinemas.

In a separate interview for Business Insider, Millar explained his point of view in getting Jackson delightfully entangled within the MCU.

“Sam is famously the coolest man alive and both myself and artist Bryan Hitch just liberally used him without asking any kind of permission,” Millar explained. “You have to remember this was 2001 when we were putting this together. The idea that this might become a movie seemed preposterous as Marvel was just climbing out of bankruptcy at the time. What we didn’t know was that Sam was an avid comic fan and knew all about it.”

However, what was perhaps the most hilarious turn of events was when Millar finally got to meet Jackson years later on the set of a different film.

“The first thing I said was I hope you don’t mind me completely exploiting your appearance in my book thirteen years back, and he said, ‘F*ck, no, man. Thanks for the nine picture deal,” Millar said.