Nick Fury’s Complete MCU Timeline Explained – TheFantasyTimes

Nick Fury has been one of the central characters of the MCU since its inception with 2008’s Iron Man, but his backstory has been told completely out of order. Samuel L. Jackson debuted as Nick Fury in Iron Man’s post-credits scene and has since appeared in ten further MCU feature films, lent his voice to a number of Nick Fury variants in What If…?, and has gone on to star in his first solo adventure with Secret Invasion on Disney+. While plenty has been revealed about Nick Fury’s MCU backstory, he is still one of the franchise’s most enigmatic characters, as much of his personal life is still a mystery.

Samuel L. Jackson originally signed a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios, starting with Iron Man, but he has since surpassed this. 2019’s Captain Marvel marked Jackson’s ninth project in the MCU and also revealed more about the former Director of SHIELD’s personal life than any previous project. However, with subsequent appearances in Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, What If…?, Secret Invasion, and Marvel Studios’ upcoming The Marvels, Jackson has cemented himself as one of the longest-serving actors in Marvel Studios’ franchise. Even so, Fury’s backstory has been revealed out of chronological order, so here’s a breakdown of Nick Fury’s entire timeline in the MCU.

16 Nick Fury’s Early Life & Joining The United States Army (1950-1968)

During an exchange in Captain Marvel, which saw Fury proving to Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers that he wasn’t a shape-shifting Skrull, Fury revealed details about his childhood. Born Nicholas Joseph Fury in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950, Fury grew up insisting everyone refer to him only by his surname, including his own family. He even revealed that his first pet was a cat named Mr. Snoofers. After finishing high school in 1968, Fury joined the United States Army. Fury rose through the ranks to become Colonel before leaving the military and embarking on a career in espionage with the CIA, seeing a large amount of action during the Cold War.

15 Nick Fury Joins SHIELD (1980s)

At some time during the 1980s, Fury left the CIA to join SHIELD and was working under the command of high-ranking SHIELD member R. Keller, portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn in Captain Marvel, by 1988. Although Captain Marvel saw Fury on a field mission, his main job within SHIELD was behind a desk, researching future threats to the United States, though he worked his way up to a Level 3 clearance. During this time, Fury also oversaw the training of Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson and began to develop a working relationship with Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce, the then-Undersecretary of the World Security Council.

14 Carol Danvers Introduces Nick Fury To Skrulls (1995)

In 1995, Fury and a team of SHIELD Agents were sent to investigate a mysterious woman who had crashed into a Blockbuster video store in Los Angeles. Turning out to be Carol Danvers, the space-faring hero took Fury on an adventure as she explored her own backstory on Earth, her friendship with Maria Rambeau and her daughter, Monica, and introduced Fury to the shape-shifting alien race, the Skrulls. Eventually learning that the Skrulls were in fact humanity’s allies, Fury began a strong working relationship with Talos, the leader of the Skrulls who had been impersonating R. Keller, the then-Director of SHIELD, and helped the Skrulls take on Kree warriors.

13 Nick Fury Loses The Use Of His Left Eye (1995)

During his adventure with Captain Marvel, Fury came across a creature known as a Flerken, an alien that had taken the form of a domesticated cat. Goose had previously belonged to Annette Bening’s Mar-Vell but aided Fury and the Skrulls in taking down Danvers’ former Kree allies using the protruding tentacles ejected from her mouth to incapacitate a number of Kree soldiers. Goose also stored the Tesseract safely inside the pocket dimension in her stomach. However, while playing with Fury after the battle, Goose scratched Fury across his left eye, leaving heavy scarring and causing his eventual blindness, leading to him sporting his signature eye patch.

12 Nick Fury Becomes The Director Of SHIELD (Late 1990s)

Working with Alexander Pierce on a mission in Bogotá in the 1990s, Fury was ordered to negotiate with National Liberation Army, who had taken several political officers, including Pierce’s daughter, hostage. Fury disobeyed these orders and managed to safely retrieve the hostages, and he was promoted to Director of SHIELD for his heroic actions. Fury’s personal mission as SHIELD’s Director was to investigate mysterious, dangerous, and sometimes otherworldly artifacts, including the Tesseract and the Darkhold. He also used his position as Director to put his plan for the Avengers Initiative into action, an idea he had devised after learning of alien threats in Captain Marvel.

11 Nick Fury Begins To Recruit The Avengers (2000-2008)

Despite the World Security Council wanting Fury to focus on researching the Tesseract, he instead used his position as Director of SHIELD to begin to recruit the Avengers. While his initial attempts to find Captain America, a superhero from WWII, failed, Fury recruited Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton and later Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff into SHIELD as two of his most-trusted agents. Marvel Comics’ The Incredible Hulk: The Fury Files detailed Fury’s attempts to bring Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, into the fold, though he put these plans on hold after seeing the scale of the Hulk’s power. Instead, Fury turned his attention to one of the MCU’s newest heroes.

10 Tony Stark Is Recruited As A Consultant (& Fury Saves His Life) (2008)

2008’s Iron Man kicked off the MCU by detailing Tony Stark’s origin story as Iron Man. After declaring his superhero identity to the world, Iron Man’s post-credits scene saw Stark met by Nick Fury in the darkness of his Malibu home, with Fury suggesting that Stark had become part of a bigger universe of heroes. Fury and Stark’s relationship was developed further in Iron Man 2, which saw SHIELD buy Stark more time so that he could find a new element for his arc reactor, and Stark was recruited as a consultant for the Avengers, though not yet an official member of the team.

9 SHIELD Begins Research On The Tesseract (2011)

While Fury was also recruiting potential members of the MCU’s Avengers, he also set to work recruiting valuable minds into SHIELD’s ranks, including Stellan Skarsgård’s Erik Selvig in 2011’s Thor. Selvig was brought into SHIELD’s Joint Dark Energy Mission facility, where he first laid his eyes on the Tesseract, with Fury asking Selvig to research the cube. Unbeknownst to either, this action would lead directly to the events of The Avengers, and the Space Stone hiding within the Tesseract would be pivotal to the future of the MCU. Since Fury had started researching the Tesseract, the World Security Council granted SHIELD more funding, allowing the Avengers to finally be born.

8 Nick Fury Introduces Himself To Captain America (2011)

During 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, Fury’s dreams of recruiting Captain America for the Avengers Initiative came true when Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers was found frozen but still alive. After Rogers escaped his rehabilitation room in a Times Square SHIELD facility, Fury met him personally and explained his situation. Since the Avengers program had been losing traction following in the space between Iron Man 2 and The First Avenger, Captain America’s reawakening was a huge win for Fury’s Avengers dreams, marking the final piece of the puzzle in bringing the Avengers together only a year later.

7 The Avengers Assemble (2012)

When SHIELD’s research on the Tesseract opened a doorway into space, Loki made his way to Earth and waged war on humanity. The Avengers were brought together to battle the Asgardian God of Mischief, retrieve the Tesseract, break Loki’s spell over Clint Barton and Erik Selvig, and save New York from Loki’s Chitauri army. As their benefactor, Nick Fury had a pivotal role in bringing the team together and forging them into a collective unit consisting of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. The Avengers’ success during the Battle of New York restored Fury and the World Security Council’s faith in the project.

6 Nick Fury Is Apparently Killed By HYDRA (2014)

After 2012’s The Avengers, the team members went back to embarking on solo missions, with Steve Rogers falling under the employ of Nick Fury and SHIELD as their top operative. During Captain America: The Winter Soldier, however, HYDRA was revealed to have been growing within SHIELD from the beginning, with Fury’s old ally Alexander Pierce leading the corrupt organization. Fury was chased down by HYDRA and the Winter Soldier and apparently killed, though this was later revealed as a ruse. However, it did supply Fury with the chance to go underground, abandoning his old life with the world presuming him dead.

5 Nick Fury Aids The Avengers In The Battle Against Ultron (2015)

Despite no longer being the Director of SHIELD and working incognito, Fury was still able to make contact with the Avengers during 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Meeting the team at Clint Barton’s family home, Fury advised the Avengers on how to handle the threat posed by James Spader’s Ultron. Fury later appeared alongside Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, his former right-hand-woman at SHIELD, in a reclaimed helicarrier to aid the evacuation of Sokovia. Managing to get the majority of the city’s population to safety, Fury proved that SHIELD was still a necessary force on Earth and once again demonstrated his leadership ability despite not currently having anyone to lead.

4 Nick Fury & Maria Hill Are Snapped By Thanos (2018)

After Avengers: Age of Ultron, Nick Fury and Maria Hill went underground once again, with neither being seen until 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. In Atlanta, Fury and Hill began to be alerted of the Avengers’ battle against the Mad Titan Thanos in Wakanda, though only moments later, it was revealed that Thanos had completed his mission, as people began to disintegrate around them. Hastily, Fury managed to contact Captain Marvel on the pager she’d gifted him for emergencies, before he and Hill fell victim to Thanos’ Infinity War snap. Fury and Hill would return after the Hulk’s snap in Avengers: Endgameand both were present at the funeral of Tony Stark.

3 Nick Fury Leaves Earth To Work On SABER (Before 2024)

Spider-Man: Far From Home’s post-credits scene revealed that Fury and Hill, despite seeming to be directly involved with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man’s battle against Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, had actually been the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise. Fury himself was revealed to be off-world at the time, with Phase 5’s Secret Invasion on Disney+ revealing that he had been working on the SABER Space Station. It’s unclear exactly when Fury left Earth, but Secret Invasion also revealed that the Blip in Avengers: Endgame left a huge impact on Fury, suggesting he left the planet during the eight-month gap between Endgame and Far From Home, with Talos assuming his identity in his place.

2 Maria Hill Calls Nick Fury Back To Earth To Deal With The Skrull Rebellion (2025)

Secret Invasion premiered on Disney+ on June 21, 2023, beginning with Fury’s return to Earth from working on the SABER Space Station for roughly two years. Fury has been called back to Earth by Maria Hill and Talos to deal with a Skrull rebellion led by Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Gravik, planning to eradicate humanity and claim Earth as their own. This is in retaliation to Fury and Captain Marvel’s broken promise of finding the Skrulls a new home across the stars. Fury appears much more vulnerable in Secret Invasion, but with the series marking his first solo adventure in the MCU, more details about his character may still be revealed.

1 Nick Fury Will Work With The Marvels (2025)

The first trailer for 2023’s The Marvels was released on April 11, 2023, revealing that Nick Fury will have a role in the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel. Featuring the formation of a new MCU team with Carol Danvers, a grown-up Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, it’s unclear what role Fury will have in the adventure. However, it seems that a part of the film will take place on the SABER Space Station, leading on from Secret Invasion’s storyline and putting Nick Fury back in the leadership position.