In 2001, Marvel made what, in retrospect, looks like a wildly risky decision.
Writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch were reinventing Marvel’s Avengers for a new comic-book universe called “The Ultimates.” When it came time to redesign Nick Fury, the grizzled S.H.I.E.L.D. director who had traditionally been portrayed as a white man, they decided to make him Black. Then they went one step further and made him look almost exactly like Samuel L. Jackson.
They did not ask Jackson. They did not license his likeness. They simply decided that if Nick Fury were going to be the coolest intelligence chief in the Marvel universe, he might as well look like one of the coolest actors on the planet.
At the time, the gamble probably seemed harmless. Marvel had only recently emerged from bankruptcy, was not yet producing its own movies and had no idea that characters like Iron Man, Thor and Captain America would eventually anchor the biggest interconnected film franchise Hollywood had ever seen.
There was just one problem: Samuel L. Jackson happened to be a huge comic-book fan. And when he eventually saw the new Nick Fury, he immediately realized Marvel had used his face.
What happened next turned an unauthorized comic-book likeness into one of the most remarkable casting stories in Hollywood history.
Marvel Was In A Very Different Place In 2001
To understand why Millar and Hitch felt comfortable borrowing the likeness of one of the most recognizable actors in the world, you have to remember what Marvel looked like at the beginning of the 2000s.
This was not Disney-owned Marvel. There was no Marvel Cinematic Universe because Marvel wasn’t even making its own feature films yet. The company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996 after years of financial problems tied to collapsing comic-book and trading-card sales, debt and a bruising battle over control of the business. It finally emerged from bankruptcy in 1998.
Hollywood adaptations of Marvel properties existed, but Marvel’s role was primarily to license characters to outside studios. Fox controlled the movie rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Sony had Spider-Man. Other characters were scattered around Hollywood under various deals.
The idea that Marvel itself would someday operate a movie studio capable of producing a continuous stream of billion-dollar blockbusters still sounded far-fetched.
That was the environment in which Millar and Hitch began working on “The Ultimates.”
They Literally Drew Samuel L. Jackson As Nick Fury
“The Ultimates” was conceived as a modernized version of the Avengers. Characters were redesigned, personalities were updated and the entire superhero concept was given a more contemporary, cinematic feel.
Nick Fury received one of the most dramatic makeovers. The original Fury, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s, was a white World War II veteran who eventually became Marvel’s superspy and director of S.H.I.E.L.D. David Hasselhoff even played that version of the character in the 1998 television movie “Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Millar wanted something completely different. He envisioned the new Fury as a modern Black military and intelligence figure, and he and Hitch quickly settled on Jackson as the visual model.
As Millar later explained:
“Sam is famously the coolest man alive.”
So they used him. Not someone vaguely inspired by Samuel L. Jackson, but a character who clearly looked like Samuel L. Jackson.
The comic even leaned into the joke. In one memorable exchange, members of the Ultimates discuss which actors should play them if somebody ever makes a movie about their adventures. When Fury is asked who should portray him, the answer is obvious: Samuel L. Jackson.
At the time, it was a meta joke in a comic book. A few years later, it became casting.
Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
Then Samuel L. Jackson Walked Into A Comic Store
Marvel’s creators had apparently overlooked one important fact: Samuel L. Jackson actually read comics.
Jackson has described walking into Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles and spotting “The Ultimates.” When he looked at Nick Fury, there wasn’t much ambiguity about whose face he was seeing, so he called his representatives and asked whether somebody had given Marvel permission to use his image.
His agents reportedly had no idea what he was talking about.
Jackson’s team contacted Marvel, and according to Jackson, the company explained that it was considering making movies based on its characters and hoped that, if those films happened, he would play Nick Fury.
That distinction matters because the story has often been retold as though Marvel immediately signed a binding contract in 2001 guaranteeing Jackson the role. The reality appears to have been less formal. Jackson had leverage because Marvel had used his likeness, while Marvel had effectively created a version of Fury that audiences would naturally associate with him.
Instead of becoming Marvel’s legal enemy, Jackson eventually became Nick Fury.
Then Marvel Bet $525 Million On Becoming A Movie Studio
A few years later, Marvel’s ambitions changed dramatically.
In 2005, Marvel arranged a massive $525 million financing facility that allowed the company to begin producing its own movies rather than merely licensing characters to outside studios. It was a transformational gamble because Marvel would now have far more control over casting, release dates, merchandising and the financial upside if the movies succeeded.
“Iron Man” became one of the first major tests of that strategy. Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark, Jon Favreau directed, and Marvel put its future on the line with a superhero who was nowhere near as valuable to the general public as Spider-Man or the X-Men.
The movie opened in May 2008 and became a major hit. Then, after the credits finished rolling, audiences who stayed in their seats saw something that would change blockbuster filmmaking.
Tony Stark walks into his home and finds a man waiting in the shadows. It is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Fury wants to talk to Stark about the “Avenger Initiative.”
That short scene did more than introduce a character. It announced the larger idea behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe: these superheroes could exist in the same world, their movies could intersect, and eventually they could all be brought together.
Standing at the center of that idea was the actor whose face Marvel had once borrowed for a comic book without asking.
Jackson Almost Walked Away Anyway
The story could have ended after “Iron Man.” Despite the excitement surrounding Jackson’s cameo, Marvel and the actor still had to negotiate a real long-term contract, and those negotiations nearly fell apart over money.
In early 2009, Jackson publicly acknowledged that discussions with Marvel had broken down and suggested that another actor might end up playing Nick Fury. Marvel was famously cost-conscious during the MCU’s early years, and Jackson was already one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars.
Eventually, the two sides found common ground. In February 2009, Jackson signed a remarkable nine-picture agreement to play Nick Fury, with planned appearances that included “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America,” “The Avengers” and potential sequels.
Today, massive multi-film superhero deals sound normal. In 2009, committing a major movie star to as many as nine appearances in an unproven interconnected franchise was anything but routine.
Jackson himself later joked that when Marvel offered him nine movies, his first thought was essentially wondering how long he was going to have to stay alive to finish them.
Nick Fury Became The Glue Of The MCU
Fury proved perfect for what Marvel was trying to build because the character did not need his own franchise to be valuable.
Tony Stark had “Iron Man.” Steve Rogers had “Captain America.” Thor had “Thor.” Nick Fury could simply show up wherever Marvel needed him, linking one story to another and reminding audiences that all of these movies belonged to the same larger universe.
Jackson appeared in “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America: The First Avenger” and then 2012’s “The Avengers,” the movie that proved Marvel’s interconnected experiment actually worked. He later returned in projects including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “Secret Invasion” and “The Marvels.”
By then, Jackson had long since completed the original nine-picture commitment, but the relationship continued because Nick Fury had become one of the MCU’s most useful recurring characters.
So How Much Did Samuel L. Jackson Make From Marvel?
This is one place where the original version of this story got too confident.
For years, reports have claimed that Jackson earned several million dollars even for brief Nick Fury appearances and much more for larger roles. But Marvel and Jackson have never publicly released a complete accounting of his compensation, so there is no reliable way to calculate exactly how much he has earned playing Fury.
What Jackson has revealed is arguably more interesting. His nine-picture agreement did not simply lock him into one rigid salary structure. He has said the individual movies were negotiated separately and that the arrangement ultimately worked out fairly for him financially.
That mattered because of how quickly the MCU exploded. When Jackson signed his nine-picture deal in early 2009, “Iron Man” was Marvel Studios’ only unequivocal blockbuster. “The Avengers” had not been made. Disney had not yet acquired Marvel. Nobody knew whether audiences would embrace Thor or Captain America, much less whether a giant crossover movie involving all of them could work.
Six months after Jackson’s deal was announced, Disney agreed to buy Marvel for approximately $4 billion. From there, the MCU became one of the most lucrative entertainment franchises ever created.
Whatever Jackson ultimately earned, the decision not to turn Marvel’s unauthorized use of his likeness into a conventional legal fight proved enormously fortunate. Instead of taking a settlement and walking away, he became embedded in the franchise.
“Thanks For The Nine-Picture Deal”
Years later, Millar finally found himself working with Jackson in person when Jackson was cast as the villain in “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” another movie adapted from one of Millar’s comics.
Millar brought up the old Nick Fury story and apologized for having used Jackson’s likeness without permission all those years earlier.
Jackson’s response was perfect:
“Fuck no, man. Thanks for the nine-picture deal!”
It is difficult to argue with the logic. In 2001, Marvel was a recently bankrupt comic-book company whose creators borrowed Samuel L. Jackson’s face because they thought it would be cool. Seven years later, Jackson stepped out of the shadows at the end of “Iron Man” and introduced the Avengers Initiative.
Nearly two decades after that cameo, Samuel L. Jackson and Nick Fury are so closely associated that it’s almost easy to forget which one was modeled after the other. Marvel used Samuel L. Jackson to create its modern Nick Fury, and Samuel L. Jackson ultimately made the character his own.
