Corona | Coming Attractions

In a deal that is taking everyone by surprise, Samuel L. Jackson has worked out a contract with Marvel Studios that would see him reprise his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury in nine more movies. Yeah, you read that right -- nine.

The deal comes after five weeks of waiting to hear if the idea to bring back Jackson as Fury in Iron Man 2 was as dead as Spider-Man's Uncle Ben. In January Jackson told the media that things weren't looking good for him to be in the Iron Man sequel. "There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down," Jackson said at the time. "I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody 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.'"

I guess that deal wasn't made and instead a mega-deal was. The door is now open for Sam the man to not just be in Iron Man 2 or Iron Man 3 but in The Avengers, Thor, Captain America and several sequels for each of these new superhero franchises. It's brilliant for Marvel Studios to lock in an actor who can play a character that can appear in different franchises since it cements together the notion that the Marvel movies are all taking place in the same universe. However, the deal is so out of the blue that it's almost unbelievable to accept; just when it looked like Marvel was cheaping out they go ahead and pull off the mother of all movie deals involving one character. Maybe Marvel comp'ed Jackson a lifetime subscription to all of the titles that they're publishing?