Would Nick Fury Side With Captain America Or Iron Man? Writers Explain His ‘Civil War’ Absence

“Captain America: Civil War” almost felt like an “Avengers” film, but there was missing a key player: Nick Fury. Samuel L. Jackson did not appear as the gruff leader in Marvel’s latest movie, so he didn’t get to choose between Team Cap and Team Iron Man. It seems that choice is part of the reason writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus left him out of the film.

“We didn’t want him to take one side or the other, because that’s not his place in the universe,” Markus told the Los Angeles Times. “And then we didn’t want another, ‘Is he still with the government? Is he opposed to the government but supporting the government?’ It got to be the potential for a lot more polemic discussion that the movie did not have room for.”

Fury has also been the one to unite the Avengers before. The “Civil War” writers wanted to see how the superheroes sorted out fights without the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director. “He’s been the sort of parent figure to the Avengers,” Markus added. “Let the parent go away, and see if the kids can handle this. See if the kids can be who they’re supposed to be without that governing voice. Um ... and they didn’t do that good of a job.”

Don’t worry, the Avengers will get their father figure back eventually. “Don’t you assume you’ll see everybody in the ‘Infinity War’?” McFeely asked.

Jackson said last month that he’ll be in the two-part “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018 and 2019. “I think I’m in ‘Avengers’ 3 and 4, but I’m not in ‘Civil War,’ ” Jackson told Fandango.

He won’t be alone. As previously reported, the third and fourth “Avengers” films will have the largest superhero lineup of any Marvel Cinematic Universe film yet. “It’s a culmination of everything that’s occurred in the Marvel Universe up to the point where the Marvel Universe is released. Some of those films haven’t even hit yet,” director Anthony Russo told ScreenRant. “We’re going to be dealing with some of the characters from those movies who are going to be in ‘Infinity War.’ They’re massive in scope and scale but that’s the point. The point is for them to be as ambitious as they possibly can be. They’re going to be multi-perspective films.”

“Avengers: Infinity War Part 1” is scheduled to hit theaters May 4, 2018, while “Part 2” will be released May 3, 2019.