Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury has been part of the MCU since its very beginnings, after all, he led S.H.I.E.L.D. for years and spearheaded the Avengers Initiative to what it is today. Jackson appeared as Fury in almost every MCU movie between 2008's "Iron Man" up to 2014's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." That's a grand total of six movies. Then, he disappeared. There have been six additional MCU movies since then and he's appeared in none of them. Where is Nick Fury? We don't really know. Either Marvel's creative head Kevin Feig has decided to cut his role entirely in the films or has grander plans for him in the future.
Now comes word, from Jackson himself, that Fury will definitely not be part of the upcoming two-part "Avengers" saga, and he doesn't seem too pleased about it either. The major players from the first two "Avengers" movies will all be there, and there will be additional players as well: Benedict Wong from Doctor Strange and Danai Gurira from Black Panther. But where's Nick Fury? Speaking to Yahoo! promoting his latest film, "The Hitman's Bodyguard," Jackson confirmed the absence of his character in these upcoming films:
“I wasn’t in the ‘superhero argument’ movie [Captain America: Civil War], I’m not in Avengers 3 and 4. They’re shooting them now, and they haven’t called me yet. They wouldn’t let me go to Black Panther-ville, so it’s kinda like how you gonna make a black Marvel movie and not let Nick Fury show up in it?!”
He's got a point. Although it was recently announced that he will co-star with Brie Larson in "Captain Marvel," but that film is supposed to be set in the 1990s, nevertheless the frustration seems to be showing with Jackson. If you remember, the last time we saw Fury was in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," he was in exile following the Hydra bomb of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."
Are they keeping him in reserve to arrange the new "Avengers" team for Phase 4? We do know it will be a different iteration of the Avengers with possibly Spider-Man being added to the mix, among others, all depending on the Sony/Disney negotiations of course. Jackson is supposed to be a mentor for the team and keeps the glue working throughout their ego-clashing endeavors. It'd be a real shame to not see him back for these films, but something tells me he will have some kind of role in the near future, Fury is a popular character and has significant importance in the history of the MCU that it'd be too hard to ignore him.