Captain America Screenwriters Reveal Why There Was No Nick Fury In WWII Scenes!

Captain America Screenwriters Reveal Why There Was No Nick Fury In WWII Scenes!

Many wondered why there was no sign of Nick Fury (or even his father, Jack) in Captain America: The First Avenger, and in a recent interview, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely reveal exactly why...

News
By JoshWilding - Oct 23, 2011 03:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Captain America
Source: The HD Room

Before Captain America: The First Avenger was released, many were left wondering whether or not Nick Fury would appear during the WWII based scenes as he has in both the 616 and Ultimate comic book universes. When Samuel L. Jackson was confirmed as starring in the movie, most of automatically assumed that this meant he would be, until we eventually found out that it was only in a current day epilogue that he would appear, Well, in an interview with The HD Room, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have now revealed exactly why they decided to keep Nick Fury (and his dad) away from Captain America's WWII action.

A buddy of mine and I were talking about the Howling Commandos last night, and he reminded me that in the current Marvel continuity, Nick Fury's father, Jack, was a Commando. Was there a point where you guys entertained the notion of including that?

SM- For one thing, I'm not even sure Sam Jackson's father could've been in World War II. But our thing was that we wanted Cap to be the leader of the unit, and you add a Fury in there and all of a sudden you risk taking away the major focus being on Cap.

CM- Plus, we were already using Howard Stark, so there were already threads to connect to The Avengers movie and the other Marvel movies there. Plus, the general trend with these kinds of movies has been that jamming too many characters or too many villains, etc., tends to make them a little bloated. We wanted to keep it as simple as possible.


What do you guys think of their reasoning? Does it make sense, or are you still disappointed that we never got to see Nick Fury and Cap fighting side-by-side on the battlefields of WWII? Would that have even made sense in a somewhat realistic cinematic universe?! Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place! Captain America: The First Avenger is out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25th in the US, and available in the UK on December 5th.

STARRING:

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Ramanoff/Black Widow
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Tom Hiddleston as Loki

RELEASE DATE: May 4th, 2012. (US)




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goldenavenger77
goldenavenger77 - 10/23/2011, 4:01 AM
Wasn't necessary, you don't have to follow the comic book backgrounds on each character for you to still enjoy them in the movie. A little mystery with Fury is good with me, maybe he kicked some arse in Vietnam instead.
MovieMaster
MovieMaster - 10/23/2011, 4:02 AM
hmm, i see where they're coming from, but it would've been nice to see them fighting side-by-side and then seeing an older version of one of your best friends
CraptainAmerica
CraptainAmerica - 10/23/2011, 4:08 AM
I would have liked the inclusion of Fury but the movie was superb and to include him would only have served to overcomplicate things
AlexDeLarge87
AlexDeLarge87 - 10/23/2011, 4:14 AM
I was little bit disppointed that Cap was the leader of Howling Commandos and not Fury.
But their reason makes sense.

Still think they should do Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos movie. Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Fury.
ADParker
ADParker - 10/23/2011, 4:15 AM
I'm fine with that omission. I actually like how they went with Cap as the leader of the Howling Commandos.
I think it would have been fleshed out better through two films though;
1. Cap origin and Howling Commandos formation/joining,
2. Cap's 'death.'
Both in terms of getting a real feel for the Howling Commandos, and for Cap being a real presence and hero of WWII. As the movie plays out it is too easy to see him as a figure who went on one just one real mission set and got himself 'killed.'

The Ultimate Nick Fury (on which the movie character is primarily based - right down to being played by the man his likeness was based upon) was in WWII but without the Howling Commandos connection.

And connecting the two in WWII only makes sense if they intend to bring in the Infinity formula / Super-soldier aspect to Fury's character (ie. that he is that old, and the hows and whys of that.) And with all the other characters needing attention in the Avengers it probably makes sense to skip that extra baggage (as cool as it would be for us comic book fans.)
goldenavenger77
goldenavenger77 - 10/23/2011, 4:40 AM
Would have been great to see a bit more of Cap's service in WW2 and Howling Commando action, but still it is a really good movie and the filmakers done well with the run time they had to work with.

I was just never really impressed with the ray guns (not sure on a better name for them) and Hydra uniforms. Would have been better with fall on German military uniforms or someting a bit like from Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Have the Red Skull in a slighty different looking SS Uniform but hey, I'm not going to throw my toys out the pram about it. Roll on Decemeber 5th!
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 10/23/2011, 4:48 AM
They can always include Jack or Nick in the sequels. The movie glossed over several years of Howling Commando adventures before Cap got frozen, so Fury can easily be worked back in as a some time leader of the group.
Ichaos
Ichaos - 10/23/2011, 4:51 AM
We all the mistakes of cramming too many characters into these types of movies. Spiderman 3 and too many bats in the batcave comes to mind.

Plus there was an unfortunate segregation and other unsavory practices with black soldiers during WWII. Apparently such practices happened up until the Vietnam war.

I realize sometimes Hollywood likes to try to rewrite history but its important not to forget about the past especially the ugly parts because as the saying goes those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 10/23/2011, 4:51 AM
@GoldenAvenger I thought the "ray guns" were pretty well established as direct precursors to Stark's arc reactor weapons. They made sense in a James Bond villain sort of way.
admiralhowdy
admiralhowdy - 10/23/2011, 4:56 AM
I am fine with the choice of not including him for those reasons, but I think there should have been at least an easily missed line somewhere in the movie, to explain his absence, and to hint to the movie audience that the Fury they've already seen was mysteriuosly around back in those days. Hell, he could have had just an unexplained cameo in the battle montage sequence.
chuckg313
chuckg313 - 10/23/2011, 4:57 AM
@ knossis i agree 100%...was too thrill with hugo's red skull performance either but, that could have been due to them hurrying through cap's exploits it never felt like they were mortal enemies.
mechanimorph
mechanimorph - 10/23/2011, 4:59 AM
Yeah having Cap wake up in modern day and then seeing Dum Dum and Nick still around takes away from the Movie's impact of him being a frozen WW2 soldier out of his depth.
jazzman
jazzman - 10/23/2011, 5:00 AM
hold on in Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes they introduce Nick Fury father Jack Fury in WW2. they could of went with a similar route like that.



marvel72
marvel72 - 10/23/2011, 5:05 AM
wasn't that important,slight changes to the source material is fine.its when fox rips the arse out of something that pisses me off.
jazzman
jazzman - 10/23/2011, 5:06 AM
@Ichaos

the segregation in Cap was not reflected in the movie at all. all the soldiers in the movie was integrated unit.
Ichaos
Ichaos - 10/23/2011, 5:15 AM
@marvel72 Marvel Movieverse is already a kind of hybrid between 616 and ultimate so the source material is multiple choice. And really only reason why Nick is even there is because they wanted to bring an old WWII comic character to modern day and had to come up with a ridiculous reason why that happened.

Unfortunately historically speaking Black Nick Fury in WWII doesn't work unless he was in a segregated all black unit. It sucks but its an unfortunate historical truth
goldenavenger77
goldenavenger77 - 10/23/2011, 5:16 AM
@ NoAssemblyReqd

Yeah I guess Bro, but just can't warm up to them though. Maybe if they wasn't so polished. The Red Skulls hand "ray gun" thingy did have that Iron Man repuslor sound to it.
Ichaos
Ichaos - 10/23/2011, 5:21 AM
@jazzman hmmm your right I had to look at a picture and there was a blackguy in there. Nick would been ok then though since Hollywood rewrote history again.
loum410
loum410 - 10/23/2011, 5:24 AM
Honestly i an understand what they are saying...look at spiderman 3....there were just sooo many characters and the movie was just one whole cluter Fu** bc of it
AC1
AC1 - 10/23/2011, 5:44 AM
I'm glad they left him out in a way because it would have shifted the focus from Cap like they said. But it would've been nice to have a nod in there, maybe a mention of a soldier named Fury, or even had Nick Fury's father Jack as a member of the Howling Comandos. Just because Nick Fury's a leader doesn't mean Jack Fury had to be one as well. Maybe Jack's inspired by Cap's sacrifice to take charge and become a leader, instilling his sons morals with stories of the legendary Captain America.

If you want to go really deep into this, then perhaps Nick's idolization of his father's stories of Cap could be the whole reason he joined SHIELD, trained/gathered other heroes like him, and eventually revived him.
AC1
AC1 - 10/23/2011, 5:47 AM
Although if the Cap sequel is set mostly in the present day, I wouldn't mind Cap finding an elderly Dum Dum or even Peggy somewhere, it'd certainly have an emotional impact.
Amazo
Amazo - 10/23/2011, 5:52 AM
They could easily have put a black Jack Fury in there.Even going against the reality of segregated units in WWII.After all,at one point they talk about genetics and DNA wasn't discovered until 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick.
Amazo
Amazo - 10/23/2011, 5:54 AM
Though I have to say I found the inclusion of Fury unimportant anyway.His appearance at the end was enough for the story :)
DarthLaney
DarthLaney - 10/23/2011, 6:17 AM
Not sure I have ever read a 'Jack Fury and The Howling Commandos'comic - where did Jack come from??
roach
roach - 10/23/2011, 6:26 AM
TBH I would have prefered the Commandoes be omitted also....they really didnt bring anything to the movie and it would have given them time to focus on Cap, Bucky and Peggy
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 10/23/2011, 6:46 AM
Jack Fury was created as a retcon to avoid having to go through explaining the Infinity Formula which keeps Nick Fury young. Makes sense, because audiences can only swallow so many fantastical elements before they go "Give me a break!"
AutobotCommander84
AutobotCommander84 - 10/23/2011, 6:48 AM
You don't risk taking the focus away from Cap because everyone else like Stark is a secondary character, he could have been one too. It just would have made more sense in order to give another reason as to why Nick respects him so much.
captquirk
captquirk - 10/23/2011, 7:22 AM
It would have been too confusing to tha average viewer, that perhaps had only seen Fury in the Iron Man movies. Unless they went through the reasons why, but it was about Cap, not Fury.I would have liked to see him there, but I understand the reasons he was absent.
jjmeylar
jjmeylar - 10/23/2011, 7:26 AM
Solid reasons.........except for his dad maybe not being old enough to be in there.
rmf1979
rmf1979 - 10/23/2011, 7:31 AM
Nobody is ever happy and everyone can do it better
mikesinuman
mikesinuman - 10/23/2011, 7:34 AM
you've watched it, you've enjoyed it. then that's it.^_^
spiderneil
spiderneil - 10/23/2011, 7:35 AM
I thought the black guy was nick fury's dad
CaptainTall
CaptainTall - 10/23/2011, 7:36 AM
The Howling Commandos? Those guys that had no names in the movies at all? Okay, cool.
dbzmaster789
dbzmaster789 - 10/23/2011, 7:42 AM
They should have done it like in Ultimate Origin, but it might have been kinda controversial
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