Samuel L. Jackson Says New Photo of Nick Fury Looking Older in SECRET INVASION Helps to Humanize His Character

A new photo has been released from the upcoming Marvel limited series, Secret Invasion, which features Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Nick Fury, looking a little older than he ever has before. Over the years, the character brought the Avengers together, watched S.H.I.E.L.D. break down, and nearly died before being snapped out of existence and back again. Now, he’s facing an army of seriously unhappy Skrulls, the green-skinned, shapeshifting aliens he met in 2019’s Captain Marvel, to whom he promised refuge and a new home – something that, thirty years later, he still hasn’t delivered.

“Secret Invasion is a different kind of mission, and that means a different kind of Nick Fury. His signature costume of an eye patch, goatee and long, black leather coat are being peeled away, as shown in the exclusive new image above, and the Fury we find underneath is altogether more fragile than we’ve ever seen him before.”

Jackson sat down with Empire for their new world-exclusive issue recently, and he said of Nick Fury:

“All those things are part of a Nick Fury that’s invulnerable. Here you have a guy who’s showing his face, and showing his age. It’s an opportunity to humanise someone that everybody thinks is superhuman.”

Despite how long and often Fury has popped up on screen, we’ve gotten to know relatively little about who he is away from his Avenger-herding duties. Secret Invasion’s six hour-long episodes give Jackson more space to explore that side of the character.

“I had to figure out some stuff and work out some new things, which I’ve been trying to do for a while,” says Jackson. “It’s great to have an opportunity to find out who he was and delve into how much of a toll his job actually takes on his personal life.”

This new, softer side of Nick Fury is something producer Jonathan Schwartz wanted to focus on, too – though in a more literal sense. Schwartz told Empire:

“One of the things we really wanted to bring to this show that makes it a little bit unique in the Marvel universe is vulnerability. Nick Fury is just a human, Maria Hill [Cobie Smulders] is just a human. A single bullet could take them out. That’s something we don’t always get in the MCU. To bring that level of tension, fear and vulnerability into one of our shows was really exciting.”

With all this talk of bullets, and his “One last fight” line in the trailer, could Secret Invasion really be the end for Fury? Jackson hopes not.

“I love playing him, and I love the fact that they’re opening him up to all these other possibilities and this whole life that he has. So hopefully I’m not done, and in this new phase of the MCU I’ll still be floating in and out of there somehow, some way.”

Let’s hope so! Secret Invasion is streaming on Disney+ beginning June 21st.