Nick Fury has been a key part of the MCU from the beginning, but Samuel L. Jackson is annoyed he was left out of one major storyline. In a recent interview, the actor admitted that he still doesn't understand how it was that Nick Fury didn't have a part to play in Captain America: Civil War. The accomplished actor, who rarely doesn't tell you exactly how he feels, says that he's largely happy with the way he and his character have been used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with that one glaring oversight. According to Jackson...
There's lots of stuff you can do with him. But has he been used wisely? Yeah, except for things like Civil War. It's like, if all the Avengers are fucking fighting each other, where is their guardian? Where's that dude who comes in and goes, 'Alright, everybody go to your room. I'll be in there to talk to you in a minute.' Either he's the guy that brought them together and he's the glue, or he's not. I felt a little- I felt a way about that.
Samuel L. Jackson's sentiments on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast likely echo those of a lot of fans who wondered the exact same thing. As the person responsible for making the Avengers a team in the first place, one would expect he'd have some feelings about what was going on when the team began to fall apart. It's not like the events of the film happen quietly. One would assume that the superhero fallout is the discussion on every news channel. Even if Fury is staying mostly to the shadows, as he is following Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you'd think this would be a reason for him to pop up again.
It certainly makes sense, and at the end of the day, the reason that Nick Fury did not appear in Captain America: Civil War had a lot less to do with why Nick Fury wouldn't show up and a lot more with why he shouldn't. Civil War scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have said previously that the reason they chose to leave Fury out was all about not wanting to have the character pick a side in the conflict or deal with a bunch of unrelated, unanswered questions about him when the focus of the film was elsewhere.
The feeling was that adding Fury just complicated things too much, of course, from a story standpoint it still leaves a lot of unanswered questions that have never been dealt with.
What exactly the future holds for Nick Fury, we don't exactly know, but one way or another he'll come out of Avengers: Endgame ok, as the trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home would seem to confirm that the one-eyed head of S.H.I.E.L.D. will survive into the future of the MCU.
