Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe Page #2

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And it was a redemption for him

in the same way that Tony was,

in many ways.

I think there's a destiny

to just about everything.

Um, all the guys you see down this row

are pretty much the

reason I'm here today,

so I'd like to thank them for

giving me a great opportunity.

And the other cast

fell into place very easily

'cause people seemed to like the idea

of working with him and I together.

Like, that was interesting to them.

People who wouldn't normally

do that kind of movie,

like Gwyneth, were reaching out.

I actually don't think that you

could tie your shoes without me.

I'd make it a week.

- Really?

- Sure.

What's your social security number?

When she'd

agreed to be in the movie

and she came into Jon's office,

Jon started crying

because he was so happy

that he knew he had the right

central elements to his movie,

and then she was like, "oh, baby."

And then she started

crying about something else,

and then we're all sitting

there, like, weeping.

You'd have thought we were getting ready

to do some really important,

like, Merchant Ivory movie.

The fact that Robert was

playing Tony was so...

I thought was so incredible,

and he's always been

one of my favorite actors

and always been somebody

that I wanted to work with.

I committed to the movie

without ever reading anything.

It was just Jon

explaining the character,

explaining how the

relationships were gonna be,

and kind of asking for that

trust, that leap of faith.

I'm glad I ended up

doing it 'cause it was

a great experience, and

it was a great movie.

- Ms. Potts.

- Yes?

May I speak to you for a moment?

I'm... I'm not part

of the press conference,

but it's about to begin right now.

I'm not a reporter.

I'm Agent Phil Coulson

with the Strategic Homeland

Intervention Enforcement

- and Logistics Division.

- That's quite a mouthful.

We had a government

man in Agent Coulson,

and we were like, "oh, he

should be from S.H.I.E.L.D."

- We were having fun with it.

- So I was thrilled when I got a call.

And then, at that point in the script,

the role was just a couple of scenes,

and I was nervous because,

as a veteran of doing movies

where you play in a couple scenes,

if anything's gonna get cut out,

it's not gonna be Gwyneth or Robert.

It's gonna be you.

And yet I just could not resist.

Luckily, that character

seemed to really fill a need.

I think he helped lay the groundwork

for this whole S.H.I.E.L.D. role.

You'll be hearing from us.

- From the Strategic Homeland Int...

- Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D.

As we were in

production on the film,

the idea of a Nick Fury

cameo started coming up.

And it frankly started

with a cold call I got

from Sam Jackson's agent saying,

"Hey, anything for Sam?"

"Actually, you think

he'd want to do a cameo?"

Sam loves comics. He's read

comics I think his whole life.

And he was well aware

that he was the inspiration

for the Nick Fury character

in the Ultimates series.

When I was a kid,

Nick Fury was a white guy

running through the jungle with

a whole bunch of other white guys.

And then he was David

Hasselhoff, and then I picked

up a book one day, and

it's like, "hey, that's me."

I was, you know, all in favor of it.

When we contacted his people, we

were like, "we need him for half a day."

No one was supposed to know.

We didn't even let him walk

from his trailer to the set.

We drove his car onto the stage,

parked it next to the set.

He got out, went right onto the set,

did this thing, got back in the

car, drove back to his trailer.

We were so convinced that no

one's ever gonna find out...

it's gonna be such a secret...

but it was so cool

and such big news that, by Monday,

it was all over the place.

You think you're the

only superhero in the world?

Mr. Stark, you've become

part of a bigger universe.

You just don't know it yet.

And, of course, he was

telling that to Tony Stark,

but that was also us

telling that to the audience

to see how they'd react.

And the next week, after

the film had come out,

there were stories everywhere

about who Nick Fury was,

what that meant, does that

mean that these characters exist

within the same universe?

And that was what we intended.

They do exist in the same universe.

We started looking at the list

of characters that we had...

Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor,

and all of the characters

in the Marvel universe

that hadn't been taken

yet by other studios.

And listen, to be honest with you,

the focus was

"make a great Iron Man film.

Introduce Iron Man.

Start Iron Man as a new franchise."

But in the back of my head, I thought,

"isn't this unique that all

these characters happen to form

one of Marvel's most popular

comic series, 'the Avengers.'"

It told not only Hollywood

but I believe the world

that we are serious about

telling great stories

and we have great characters,

and we're going after the

best actors for these roles.

Everything was... was

coming together all at once,

and it had helped push the

envelope a little further.

We had a group of talented people

and we did something that

kind of was an unproven entity.

It wound up being interesting

and entertaining to people.

And the audience has driven

the success, you know?

That's what's been cool.

Marvel studios had taken flight.

More and more characters

were being developed

to take their place in

this brave new world.

The Marvel cinematic

universe was about to arrive.

What if I told you we were

putting a team together?

Who's "we"?

After you do a first film,

and if you're lucky enough

that the audience is sort of

clamoring for the next one,

that's half the work right there.

I mean, it really is,

"okay, we've hit the tone,"

and that gives you a lot of freedom

to jump into what story

you want to tell next.

As we were finishing the last

couple of weeks on "Iron Man,"

maybe had one-week breather

and then went up to Toronto,

where we started filming

"the Incredible Hulk."

We wanted to go back to the

broader sense from the comics

and really the fugitive-type

manhunt structure

of the television series,

which was just brilliant.

Bruce Banner learns that

maybe that monster within him

is something that can do good.

And what Marvel Studios

has done is very similar

to what Marvel comics

did back in the day.

They built individual stories

that stand on their own two feet,

then they found a way

to take those stories

and weave them into a larger narrative.

That's something that we haven't

been able to do in the movies

until the end of "Incredible Hulk"

when Tony Stark walks in

to talk with General Ross.

That was the first time

audiences started to go,

"Wait a minute.

These worlds are connected."

Marvel had a sense that

the Avengers were coming,

so we slowly introduced more characters.

I guess I didn't really

know what the future would be

for the Black Widow.

I didn't know whether she would reappear

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