For a lot of people, the "dark horse" pick from the Marvel Studios' Phase Two lineup is likely Captain America: The Winter Soldier. However, intrigue has grown as Comic Con 2013 revealed new details about the film's political-thriller story, which will see Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) working within the organization of S.H.I.E.L.D. until a threat born of both heroes' pasts comes back to terrorize them in the form of an assassin named The Winter Soldier.

In our interviews with the Winter Soldier cast, we learned that part of the sequel's story will be Cap learning that S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't the squeaky-clean place he may have thought it was  - and neither is its director, Nick Fury. Actor Samuel L. Jackson recently opened up about the complications Nick and Cap's relationship will go through in the sequel film - and also a bit about why the actor feels Fury needs to be a apart of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series that premieres this fall.

Speaking to  USA Today about The Winter Soldier:

You see Nick Fury the office guy, him going about the day-to-day work of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the politics as opposed to that other stuff. It's great to have him dealing with Captain America in terms of being able to speak to him soldier to soldier and try to explain to him how the world has changed in another way while he was frozen in time. Some of the people who used to be our enemies are now our allies — him trying to figure out, "Well, how do we trust those guys?" or "How do we trust the guys that you didn't trust who don't trust you? And explaining to him that the black and white of good guys/bad guys has now turned into this gray area.

Nick lies to him all the time, too. (Laughs) But he's trying to help him navigate the waters of the new sharks that he doesn't know anything about.

Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and Captain America (Chris Evans) in 'The Avengers'
Jackson and Chris Evans in 'The Avengers'

....Everything has another meaning with Nick. Finding the truth of what he's saying in that particular moment is the important thing. Ultimately there's a lie in there somewhere. Sometimes it's a lie he's been told that he hasn't discovered, so I have to deal with that all the time.

There's also the nature of his relationship with different people. Like when he talks to Cap, he can talk to Cap in several different ways. He can talk to him as an equal in terms of they were both soldiers from a specific era, and you understand his kind of morality. He can also talk to him as a guy who's part of a world he doesn't know anything about, and he's a mentor now to help him do something. And then I speak to him sometimes as a boss. There's all those things I have to blend in to make sure he doesn't get rankled or ruffled in a certain kind of way and make sure he understands.

And when I talk to Natasha, it's as a father figure because he loves her in a way that he doesn't love anybody else as part of that whole group of people. The fact that they're both members of this shadow world and he knows her past in a way that no one else knows it, there's an affection and a respect there and a knowledge of that kind of person she is in there. Even if she loves him, if she had to kill him, she would, and he understands that. There's a way of dealing with her that he can't deal with anybody else.

There are all kinds of things that happen. When I'm dealing with the world council, I've got a whole other attitude. And when I look in the mirror, I have to deal with what kind of patriot am I? There's Nick dealing with Nick, and how many lies have I told? Have I told so many lies that I don't really know what's the truth anymore?

Speaking of lies vs. truths: Jackson also touched on working with Robert Redford, whose character in The Winter Soldier has been rumored to have some surprising turns in store for viewers:

Yeah, he's part of that World Security Council I was talking to in (The Avengers), just he wasn't there. We also know each other because we've been comrades for a very long time.

Agents of SHIELD Cast

Given what we've heard so far, it seems that Captain America, Black Widow AND Nick Fury are going to find old loyalties tested by some new, darker, developments within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. And, with said organization slotted to be the major focus of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, there's also been question of whether or not Fury will be making his presence felt on the small screen. Right now, however, it seems that only Fury's second-in-command, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), will be appearing in the series; Jackson says showrunner Joss Whedon is keeping Fury out of the TV side (for now):

 ...I keep talking to them about it. I keep saying, "If nothing else, let me be Charlie of Charlie's Angels. Use my voice to send them off to do stuff sometimes." Joss just looked at me like, "Hmmm. Maybe."

For more on Jackson talking Marvel, Star Wars and playing a black president in Big Game, read the full interview.

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You can catch Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2013; then again in The Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1, 2015. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Tuesday, September 24th, 2013 @8pm on ABC.

Source: USA Today