Marvel Studios Boss Explains Why Nick Fury Is the Key to ‘Captain Marvel’

We’re about a year out from Carol Danvers’s MCU debut and we still have more questions than answers when it comes to Captain Marvel. We know that Brie Larson will be playing the hero herself, and that she’ll be fighting against Skrull invaders with Nick Fury in the 1990s. That’s pretty much it – until now. Thanks to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, we now know a little more about how important Nick Fury is to this new period of MCU lore.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the future of the studio, in the lead-up to Infinity War, Feige discussed several Marvel properties including Captain Marvel, specifically how Nick Fury fit into the movie. We will be seeing a much younger Nick Fury than we’ve seen in the past in Captain Marvel. It’ll be a Fury before he met some of Earth’s mightiest heroes and brought the Avengers together.

We wanted to explore a period before Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury had any idea about any of the other heroes and crazy stuff going on in the world. You know, we first met Nick when he told Tony, “You’re part of a big universe. You just don’t know yet.” Well, we want to go back to a time when he didn’t know it yet, and really showcase and announce that Carol Danvers was that first hero that Nick came across. That meant she could be the singular hero, but place it within timing of the MCU.

Telling the story at an earlier point in Fury’s life will indeed show fans a sign of the hardass leader they’ve never seen. In the MCU’s present-day films, we’ve seen a tough and hardened Fury who looks at the bigger picture, even when no one else can see it. It makes him hard to read and get to know, making the chance to meet him in the Nineties exciting. But, Nick Fury before he wore the weight of saving the world from what’s out in the universe on his shoulders? Before he even knew what was really out there? After appearing in 6 films, it’s a welcome change to see Jackson playing a different Fury. We may even get to know him a little better because in the past he’s been busy getting the ball rolling on forming the Avengers and saving the world.

Captain Marvel’s Nineties setting does more than just let us see a different side of Nick Fury — we’ll be seeing a different sort of movie. “It also got us talking about different genres, exploring this notion of sort of the Nineties action film,” Feige said. “We hadn’t necessarily done anything like that before either, so there are definitely homages to our favorite Nineties action films within Captain Marvel.”

Captain Marvel premieres on March 8, 2019.