Marvel Lied To David Hasselhoff With Promises Of A 'Forever' Role
Now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be winding down in earnest (films like "The Marvels" and shows like "Secret Invasion" aren't nearly as successful as their forbears), perhaps audiences may finally be able to speak about the series as it if weren't an inevitability. The MCU indeed stood like a mighty colossus over the entire film industry for the better part of 15 years, but there was nothing beyond our uncreative assumptions to indicate that it had to happen or that it would last forever.
Perhaps with that attitude gone, audiences will be able to see films like "Blade" as a stylish action/horror flick unto itself, and not a dry run for something better down the line. Perhaps the 1996 pilot for "Generation X" can be accepted merely as a low-budget, MTV-inflected take on the X-Men. And perhaps TV movies like David Goyer's 1998 actioner "Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." can be viewed as an earnest, campy effort to entertain, and not merely a stumbling block on the way to Jon Favreau's "Iron Man."
I may be the only author to ever type these words, but Goyer's "Nick Fury" film is not that bad. It certainly strains against its low budget, and I can't give many props to the clunky script, but David Hasselhoff is perfectly decent in the title role, and Goyer managed to capture a particular, broad, straight-from-the-page comic book tone that this '90s teen recalls with clarity.
Hasselhoff revealed that he was promised essentially a lifetime tenure playing Nick Fury. In the book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzalez, and Gavin Edwards, Hasselhoff even noted that he received personal blessings from Stan Lee, who explained Nick Fury was meant to be a somewhat parodic character.
Everyone lied.
The real Nick Fury
It's worth noting that the Nick Fury from the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the version played by Samuel L. Jackson — was modeled after a parallel universe version of the character that wasn't created until the 2002 comic book series "The Ultimates." Not incidentally, the Ultimates Fury was initially drawn to look like Jackson, so his casting in the role in 2008 was a creative full-circle. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Nick Fury was a more fantastical, spindly character, usually seen chomping cigars and sporting some pretty wild cool-in-quotation-marks spy costumes. He was a campier character, and one that David Hasselhoff was told, by Stan Lee himself, was tongue-in-cheek.
Hasselhoff was eager to play Nick Fury, and was certainly capable of playing a more colorful, over-the-top version of the character. In the 1990s, a lot of superhero media was comedic and deconstructionist, often built to mock the silliness inherent to the genre (see: "Blankman," "Earthworm Jim," "The Tick," "Freakazoid!," "Mystery Men," etc.). The 1998 "Nick Fury" was meant to ride the line between silly and badass, which it mostly does well. Hasselhoff was told he was going to thereafter play Nick Fury in perpetuity, even after Marvel film rights were busy changing hands. The actor recalled:
"My Nick Fury was the organic Nick Fury that was written and discussed with Stan Lee before anyone got in there to change it. Nick Fury was written to be tongue-in-cheek, and he had a cigar in his mouth, he was a tough guy—he was cool ... Stan Lee said, 'You're the ultimate Nick Fury.' Avi Arad, when [Toy Biz took over Marvel], said, 'Don't worry, you're going to be Nick Fury forever,' and they lied."
Hasselhoff did not play Nick Fury again.
The consummate Nick Fury vs. the Ultimate Nick Fury
In 2015, David Hasselhoff went into greater detail about Nick Fury in an interview with the Bristol Bad Film Club. In that interview, he noted again that he had Stan Lee's express blessing to play the role, with the Marvel chieftain feeling that Hasselhoff was perfect for the part. Hasselhoff felt that his version of Nick Fury was truer to the comics, which was 100% true in 1998:
"I loved the character, I loved Lisa Rinna and all the cast that were terrific, but very true to the comic book which is very different to Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal. He's a terrific actor and I love his work and him as a person, but it was a different Nick Fury than what was portrayed in the comic books. So I was happy to pay ode and tribute to the real Nick Fury the way it was written.
Notably, there is a very small but passionate cult audience for the hard-to-find 1998 Nick Fury movie, and Hasselhoff is always happy to hear from them. Hasselhoff, an actor with an amazingly well-developed sense of humor and a keen awareness of his place in the pop culture canon, felt that camp should be more common in superhero entertainment. He continued:
"People at Comic-Con come up to me dressed as Nick Fury, with the cigar and the patch and they're really into it. I loved it because David S. Goyer wrote the film and really concentrated on the characters having a sense of humor and portrayed them as incredibly cool and entertaining. That's what I miss about the Nick Fury character. Some of the movies of today, they're missing that tongue-in-cheek humor."
Hasselhoff appeared briefly in the 2017 MCU film "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2."