Avengers 4 Set Photos Confirm Nick Fury & Maria Hill

A new batch of set photos for what appears to be Avengers 4 confirms the return of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). The upcoming superhero team-up movie marks the conclusion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first saga. Captain America: Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo are returning to helm the currently-untitled Avengers film for Marvel Studios, which is gearing up to wrap production after a year-long, back-to-back filming schedule with this summer’s Avengers: Infinity War.

While there will reportedly be upwards of 76 characters appearing in Avengers 3, one of those people won’t be Nick Fury. After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Russos’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Fury went underground while Hill went to work for Tony Stark. Although both characters appeared in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, only Smulders is reporteldy confirmed to be reprising her role in Avengers 3. Jackson, on the other hand, previously mentioned that he has no part in any upcoming Marvel movie aside from 2019’s Captain Marvel, but his circumstances may have changed.

Just Jared has published a new batch of set photos from the set of a mystery Marvel movie, featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill. Although it’s difficult to determine which movie the set photos are from, a select few key details point to the set being Avengers 4, not Captain Marvel, which isn’t expected to start filming until February. Plus, Captain Marvel is set in the ’90s, and it’s unlikely that Smulders will be starring in that film given her age.

Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill Avengers 4 Set Photos Confirm Nick Fury & Maria Hill
A sure-fire giveaway that these photos are from the Captain Marvel set, though, would be the fact that Nick Fury isn’t wearing an eye-patch in some of the images. However, it’s worth noting that he still has the scarring around his eye in those photos. Furthermore, he does wear an eye-patch in quite a few of the other images as well, which means these photos are from the set of Avengers 4. So, those hoping for the first batch of set photos for Captain Marvel will, unfortunately, need to wait a bit longer, because what’s likely is that Jackson simply removed his eye-patch between takes.

Since Jackson isn’t confirmed to appear in Avengers 3, but is now apparently in Avengers 4, perhaps Hill is responsible for bringing him out of the woodwork. After all, she’s his most trusted agent and she did help him fake his own death in The Winter Soldier. As always with Marvel movies, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.