Nick Fury Almost Said Something Entirely Different In Iron Man's Post-Credits Scene
When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uttered the phrase "Avengers Initiative" in the "Iron Man" post-credits scene, comic book fans' minds exploded with the possibilities for what could come. According to the man who wrote the line in the infamous 35-second sequence, the idea wasn't quite cut-and-dry when he began writing it. In fact, he wrote several lines that made reference to another powerful Marvel supergroup and one that made reference to those pesky airborne snakes that Jackson had faced off with only a couple of years prior.
In an interview with Inverse, comic book writer and screenwriter Brian Michael Bendis explained the origins of writing the MCU's first post-credits scene. His orders? "'Write everything you can think of," he said. "As delightful as that sounds, I stayed up all night. This was like a writer's puzzle. I wrote a couple pages down. I wrote every serious thing you can think of and every dumb thing you can think of."
When Jackson agreed to make an uncredited appearance in the film, Bendis kept the actor in mind. He threw everything he could think of at the wall to see what would stick. Lines he wrote included a reference to the X-Men and a "Snakes on a Plane" joke that was along the lines of, "Get that motherf***ing armor off your motherf***ing..." Luckily for him and for Marvel movie fans everywhere, he included that line about The Avengers Initiative.
There was initially no plan to set up The Avengers in Iron Man
Some other lines Brian Michael Bendis recalled writing for the post-credits sequence in "Iron Man" included "Put down your armor," "Welcome to the Avengers!,"
and "I'm here to shut you down. You're done. There's no Iron Man." Bendis said that he wasn't asked at all to set up a future movie or the event spectacle of "The Avengers." Marvel just knew they had Samuel L. Jackson, and they wanted to give him something cool to say. Bendis said, "When I saw they went with Avengers — the promise of more — it was obviously the right choice. It's a big fingers-crossed [moment] because nothing was set. A lot of good things have to happen for an Avengers movie to happen. As soon as the movie opened, it was obvious the goal was in reach."
Marvel Studios changed the end credits game by practically re-inventing the idea of the post-credits scene. Prior to "Iron Man," audiences who stuck around and sat through the end credits scroll of a movie were occasionally treated to a "Ferris Bueller"-style sequence that didn't have any bearing on the movie's plot. It was simply a cute little Easter egg as a treat for those that stuck around. Then, "Iron Man" came along and essentially kicked in the door for cinematic universes and made superhero post-credit scenes an institution.