You may have seen his brief cameo at the end of this summer's second highest grossing film, Iron Man. However, with things starting to get cloudy, there's a possibility that Samuel L. Jackson will NOT be playing Nick Fury in Iron Man 2, The First Avenger: Captain America, or even the heavily anticipated Avengers movie. So far, it has worked like this. The character of Nick Fury used to be rugged and white (and once played by David Hasselhoff). Then, Marvel changed the character to specifically model Samuel L. Jackson, which has (so far) made casting for the character very clear.
Jackson was essentially scheduled to be in the Iron Man sequel, the Captain America movie, and soon to be the Traveling Willburys of comic book movies, The Avengers.
However, when recently talking with the Los Angeles Times, Jackson said something that is causing a little bit of fury in the Marvel and movie world.
He said: "There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe someone else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal.'"
Nothing is certain as of this moment. As pointed out by the LA Times, this could be Jackson's way of creating attention so that he receives a higher paycheck. At the same time, it could truly mean he won't be playing the character Marvel has engineered for him to specifically embody. Stay tuned to see whether one of the comic book movie world's best casting idea falls flat. With respect to such a furthering of Jackson's greatness, we certainly hope not.
Source: Los Angeles Times