Samuel L. Jackson Couldn’t Believe How Quickly He Blew Through His Marvel Deal

2 days ago

<p id=”par-1_52″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/samuel-l-jackson/”>Samuel L. Jackson</a> has been <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/samuel-l-jackson-nick-fury-before-mcu.html/”>a part of the Marvel universe</a> since his shocking 2008 after-credits scene in the first <em>Iron Man </em>film. After signing his deal with the studio, Jackson expected to be in it for the long haul. Only to find out that it wasn’t all that long after all.</p>

<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-why-samuel-l-jackson-was-shocked-by-his-marvel-deal”>Why Samuel L. Jackson was shocked by his Marvel deal</h2>

<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/marvel-samuel-l-jackson.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Samuel L Jackson posing at the premiere of ‘Captain Marvel’.” class=”wp-image-3743949″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Samuel L. Jackson | Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>

<p id=”par-2_49″>Jackson has been Nick Fury even before his first live-action appearance as the character. As he famously recalled, the Marvel’s Nick Fury was modeled after him in its Ultimate comics. This was a huge departure from <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/samuel-l-jackson-wasnt-completely-sure-nick-fury-stay-black-marvel-films.html/”>Fury’s more traditional look</a> in the comics, which Jackson quickly took notice of.</p>

<p id=”par-3_105″>“I still buy comic books, so I go to this store in L.A., Golden Apple, and I was in there one day and I’m passing the rack and I see this thing, <em>The Ultimates</em>, and I go, ‘Wow, it looks like me,’” Jackson said in an interview with <a href=”https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/avengers-samuel-l-jackson-casting-ultimates-nick-fury/”>Comicbook</a>. “So I started looking, and it’s like, Nick Fury looks just like me, and I’m reading, and he goes, ‘Well, if they make a movie about us, who do you want to play you?’ and Nick Fury goes, ‘Samuel L. Jackson.’ I go, ‘I didn’t give anybody my permission to use my image in a comic book.’”</p>

<p id=”par-4_65″>Jackson soon discovered that Marvel remade Fury in his image just in case they ever made a live action movie feautring the character. The plan was for the <em>Pulp Fiction </em>star to portray Fury in a hypothetical film role, which was what exactly ended up happening. However, Jackson remembered being a bit taken back by just how long he was expected to play Fury for.</p>

<p id=”par-5_38″>“I knew I had a nine-picture deal,” Jackson said in an interview with <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/l2-VmisepcE?si=t6XLqXDU7AIcu5u_”>GQ</a>. “When <a href=”https://ew.com/person/kevin-feige/”>Kevin [Feig</a>e] said that, ‘We’re gonna offer you a nine-picture deal,’ I thought, ‘How long I gotta stay alive to make nine movies?<em>’”</em></p>

<p id=”par-6_45″>But what might’ve been even more surprising was how quickly Jackson went through nine movies. At its peak, the Marvel Cinematic Universe put out two, and sometimes even three, movies a year. This meant that Jackson could honor his multi-year contract much earlier than expected.</p>

<p id=”par-7_35″>“I didn’t know they were going to make nine movies in like two and a half years. It’s kinda crazy, like, ‘Oh s***, I’m using up my contracts! But it all worked out,” he said.</p>

<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-samuel-l-jackson-was-constantly-afraid-nick-fury-would-be-killed-off”>Samuel L. Jackson was constantly afraid Nick Fury would be killed off</h2>

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<p id=”par-8_65″>Jackson not only ended up honoring his nine-picture deal, but went beyond that. Jackson has been doing a few of Marvel’s streaming projects like<em> …What If?</em>, where he voices the S.H.I.E.LD. Agent. Additionally, Jackson also led his own Disney + series <em>Secret Invasion</em>. But at one point, he wasn’t sure he’d last this long, and kept bracing for news that Fury wasn’t going to make.</p>

<p id=”par-9_28″>“My biggest concern with Marvel was trying to keep them from killing me more than anything else,” Jackson once told <a href=”https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/samuel-l-jackson-interview-marvel-secret-invasion-brie-larson-trump-racists-fbi-threat-tarantino-1234774278/”>Rolling Stone</a>. “I kind of liked the gig!”</p>

<p id=”par-10_13″>These feelings seemed to intensify whenever Jackson had a meeting with the studio.</p>

<p id=”par-11_22″>“When they called me in to tell me what’s going on, I always thought they were trying to kill me,” he said.</p>

<p id=”par-12_44″>But not only is Fury still alive, but he’s outlived a few of <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/black-widow-scarlett-johansson-avengers-endgame-death.html/”>the other Avengers characters</a> as well. And with Fury still a major part of the MCU, Jackson has pitched his own ideas about what the character could do in the future.</p>

<p id=”par-13_68″>“All the Black people in the Marvel Universe were trying to figure out, ‘Why can’t we go to Wakanda?’ Me, Don [Cheadle], Anthony Mackie… but they made it,” Jackson said. “They got to go fight. I still didn’t get there. I thought that about <em>Civil War</em> when the kids were fighting. The kids are fighting and I’m not gonna make them go to their rooms? How does that make sense?”</p>