The world changed forever when Samuel L. Jackson showed up in the post-credits scene of Iron Man as Nick Fury talking to Robert Downey Jr. about the ‘Avengers Initiative’. The scene gave birth to the MCU and the culture of post-credits scenes that did not just feature in the Marvel films but also carried over to every other shared cinematic universe.
While the legendary scene teased The Avengers, which drove fans crazy, one deleted take of the scene showed Jackson referring to Spider-Man and the X-Men. While both properties were owned by Sony and Fox at the time, the dialogue proved that producer and Marvel CEO Kevin Feige always wanted to include the two in the MCU.
Samuel L. Jackson’s Iron Man Cameo Had One Deleted Take
While Marvel did not invent the concept of a post-credits scene, it has certainly owned it over the past few years as it became a tradition in films of the MCU. The scene has also become a storytelling tool used by filmmakers to add an epilogue to their films and has become popular among franchises with shared universes such as the DCEU.
The idea was reportedly Kevin Feige’s, who got inspired by the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which was parodied by Deadpool). The idea involved a tease for Feige’s plans for the future of the Marvel Universe and included Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury meeting Tony Stark in his mansion and pitching the ‘Avengers Initiative’.
While the final film only had Fury looking outside the window and talking about the initiative, a deleted take has resurfaced in which Samuel L. Jackson refers to other characters in the Marvel Universe. He says,
As if gamma accidents, radioactive bug bites, and assorted mutants weren’t enough, I have to deal with a spoiled brat who doesn’t play well with others and wants to keep all his toys to himself.
The ‘radioactive bug bites’ clearly refer to Spider-Man while ‘assorted mutants’ of course, refer to the X-Men, neither of which Marvel Studios had the rights to at the time. So, it is obvious why Kevin Feige chose to delete the take and go for something more general instead.
Kevin Feige Had Huge Dreams For The MCU From The Start
While Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. laid the foundations for the MCU with Iron Man, it was Kevin Feige who wanted to make an interconnected universe much like the comics. Despite not having the rights to legacy IPs such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, Feige envisioned an Avengers lead-up and kickstarted production on Iron Man.
Feige was also the one who came up with the idea of a post-credits scene for the films and was reportedly behind the ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘X-Men’ references in the deleted take from Iron Man. He said in the book ‘MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios’,
We don’t have X-Men, we don’t have Fantastic Four, we don’t have Spider-Man, but we have everything else. Even though everything else hadn’t been turned into a big film before, or had the name recognition among non–comic book readers that other ones did, we had the opportunity to start putting certain heroes in other heroes’ movies, which hadn’t been done before.
After watching the deleted take, many fans speculated if Feige was referring to the Spider-Man films by Sam Raimi and Fox’s X-Men films. Both of the IPs have now returned to Marvel Studios after Disney acquired Fox and their deal with Sony Pictures. Feige is currently working on introducing the mutants in the MCU.
Gamma accidents – hulk Radioactive bug bites- Spider-Man Assorted mutants- X-men F4
-@daguy7229
Maybe he was talking about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man
-@azulartsdc2677
Ow man, this is planned for ‘A Whole Marvel Universe’ not just for ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’, or you know it as MCU
-@MArifRahmanHakim
This is a reality now
-@kvin9210
The first X-Men film in MCU Deadpool and Wolverine will be released this year on July 26. Feige’s ever-expanding universe has come a long way since the deleted take with Samuel L. Jackson referring to key Marvel IPs.
