One scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson, just seconds long, after the credits for Iron Man (2008) spawned a film franchise like none other, culminating in the biggest event movie of the year in The Avengers. The cameo appearance by Jackson eventually earned him a nine-picture contract and an important role in organizing Marvel's heroes into a team that will protect Earth for years to come in theaters around the world.

It also earned him fan speculation that one day his character, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., could get his own feature film, or at least one based on the secretive organization he leads.

Rumors of a SHIELD film have been there since the beginning, and Marvel executives teasing possible spinoff films for Fury and top S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), haven't quelled the speculation. With Marvel Studios only having the production and human resources for two major theatrical productions per year, it's become less and less likely that such a film is even feasible, especially with so many other (superpowered) heroes from Marvel Comics having scripts ready and waiting.

But if David Hasselhoff can get his own Nick Fury film, albeit a made-for-TV release, surely Samuel L. Jackson could too, right? Not likely. Fury's role is that of a supporting one, and although his presence has increased with Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, it's not leading to his own solo adventure. Instead, some of his backstory (in the comics, he fought alongside Captain America in WWII) explored in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, although he doesn't shoot down the potential of it in chatting with Coming Soon:

"Everybody likes a franchise character. Bruce (Willis) had his and Sylvester Stallone had Rocky, so I like coming back to Nick Fury. Nick Fury's a great guy... I think a lot of people know that. I know him as something else because I've been alive longer than most of the fans that watch the movies so I know Nick Fury as the World War II veteran and all that stuff. It might be interesting to do one day but we find out little bits and pieces about Nick and we're going into 'Captain America 2' in late March."

With flashbacks almost a certainty in order to fill in the back-story of Captain America 2's villain and offer an origin story for The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), perhaps we'll learn more about Nick Fury's past as well since he does play an important part in the sequel. We've long speculated that Captain America: The Winter Soldier would serve as a quasi-SHIELD film due to nature of Steve Rogers' role in the modern world, as an agent of the organization, and its shaping up into to be exactly that, potentially examining the history behind Fury, as well as Black Widow, Bucky Barnes and Rogers.

avengers movie nick fury helicarrier

It's possible that, come time for Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Nick Fury or the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization could potentially get their own film if Marvel Studios plans to follow certain character arcs from Marvel Comics - story arcs that would see Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) eventually take over the role of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Nick Fury.

But that's more likely reserved for secondary narratives taking backseat to the bigger picture story Marvel Studios, President and producer Kevin Feige, and overseer Joss Whedon are planning.

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015 and Ant-Man on November 6, 2015.

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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: Coming Soon