When Nick Fury stepped out of the shadows in the post-credit scene of 2008’s Iron Man, his words portended a seismic change in the world of entertainment.

"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."

That bigger universe in the context of Iron Man was the Avengers Initiative, Fury’s brainchild born of anxiety over the fate of humanity in a world where superpowered humans and extraterrestrial threats required Earth’s mightiest heroes fighting under one banner. In a meta sense it was the beginning of the interconnected MCU, which ten years and fifteen billion dollars later is the single highest-grossing film franchise of all time.

It’s hard to remember exactly how every plot in the MCU’s nineteen films came together, but the beginning stages of its overarching story were indelibly controlled by Fury. He investigated Thor’s hammer, defrosted Captain America, hired Black Widow and Hawkeye, sent the Avengers to discover Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, recruited Tony Stark, trusted Bruce Banner, and handled two Infinity Stones before Thanos even showed his face.

While Nick Fury has not consistently appeared in every Marvel movie, the effect he has had on shaping and maintaining the MCU cannot be overestimated — his character’s ethos defined the Marvel brand of heroism in The Avengers and his foresight will likely be what saves them in Avengers: Endgame.

His character’s ethos defined the Marvel brand of heroism in The Avengers and his foresight will likely be what saves them in Avengers: Endgame.

Aside from founding and activating the Avengers Initiative, Fury expertly manipulated the disparate heroes into working together as a team and recognizing their similarities.

He faked Phil Coulson’s death (complete with a particularly dirty gambit involving the “fallen” agent’s bloody Captain America cards) to guilt Steve Rogers and Tony Stark; played Natasha Romanoff’s emotional debt against her by sending her after Clint Barton; toyed with Thor’s fears about Earth warring with Asgard; and built a containment unit for The Hulk into his ship while promising Bruce Banner that he only valued him for his scientific knowledge.

While Fury also engaged in combat in The Avengers, it was his long-term planning that saved the day. Iron Man may have been the one who ferried a nuke into the Chitauri portal, but Nick Fury was the one who nudged him towards working selflessly in the first place.

Fury’s five-steps-ahead approach to dealing with superheroes also played a huge role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Marvel film that so far featured the most of his character in the current timeline. In that movie, his S.H.I.E.L.D. superior turned villain Alexander Pierce recounts a story about Fury disobeying a direct order and instead deciding to save lives. Fury’s prioritization of life is what guides him and Steve Rogers, who similarly disobeyed orders in World War II to save his comrades, to take down Project Insight.

Project Insight is often overlooked as a generic Marvel MacGuffin, but the impact of that victory had a far-reaching impact on the Marvel movies to come. Had Fury not recognized the similarities between himself and Steve Rogers decided to fully trust him, Project Insight would have annihilated Tony Stark, Maria Hill, and Bruce Banner, as well as future Marvel hero Stephen Strange. And without Doctor Strange, no one could have seen the Avengers’ real endgame coming.

Fury’s participation in later Marvel movies was downplayed after The Winter Soldier. He turned up as a deus ex machina in Avengers: Age of Ultron and disappeared for a handful of films until the post-credit scene of Avengers: Infinity War, which featured Fury meeting his dusty end at the hand of Thanos’s snap. Even in his last moment, however, Fury was thinking ahead.

As Nick disintegrated, he sent off a message to Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel. The upcoming Captain Marvel movie will explain Fury’s relationship to Danvers and and detail his first encounter with a superhero. It’s highly possible that his experience in with Danvers in the 1990s will inform Fury’s behavior for the bulk of the MCU and spark his idea to form the Avengers Initiative.

Captain Marvel will be more than on origin story for the MCU’s first solo female superhero, it will also be an origin story for the big, bad, black-clad motherfucker who started it all. It’s high time Nick Fury got his due — none of the MCU would be here without him.