During the making of the first "Iron Man," Samuel L. Jackson was invited to film a quick scene in the role as "a tag," the name for those short snippets of film that roll after the credits. The tag ended up being the audition of a lifetime for Samuel L. Jackson, signing a nine-movie deal with Marvel Studios to make his fictional espionage the unifying crossover character as Marvel moves forward with the plan to interlock all of its superhero films.
Now, for LA Time's annual scoop, Director Jon Favreau, shares more on Nick Fury role in Iron Man 2.
In Jackson, Favreau says, Marvel has a charismatic player with a black-ops grin who can hold his own in a room full of super-powered types.
"He has tremendous presence," Favreau said. "We have a scene in the film at Randy's Donuts where Tony, after a rough night, needs a talking-to. And as Fury, Sam is a combination of sponsor and mentor and also this mysterious guy who is indoctrinating him into this order of superheroes."
There's a scene in "Iron Man 2" where Fury talks about his firsthand knowledge of Stark's father and his personal feelings about family and legacy -- does the tidbit suggest that Fury will be linking Marvel's characters through the decades with the WWII period piece "The First Avenger: Captain America" on deck in the studio's production pipeline?
"Will they say he was alive in World War II? I don't have any idea on that one. I know there's been a lot of discussion about that. There's a lot of things to be considered. There are endless possibilities and endless discussion of them."
Reading the Iron Man 2 novel, I remember the scenes Favreau referred to, and the feeling of Nick Fury's presence with Tony Stark really put things at ease after a rough night, and really in the remainder of the film. We'll all be able to see that enjoyable presence on the big screen, May 7th.