Samuel L. Jackson says Marvel arranged a fake buy to retrieve stolen Avengers script

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Marvel's Secret Invasion
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Samuel L. Jackson says Marvel went through some pretty epic lengths to retrieve his stolen Avengers script.

"I remember when we got ready to do Avengers, someone printed out a copy of my Avengers script that had my watermark on it, and put it online for sale," Jackson told Entertainment Weekly. "I was shooting in Canada and Marvel came to Canada. It had been printed in the production office… They found out who it was, dude quit, left the country. They set up a fake buy for the script, dude didn't show up. It was crazy."

The heist took place back in 2011, with Marvel allegedly going as far as to pause production and rewrite the scene that the thief leaked online. Per Slash Film, the leaked scene in question involved the Hulk transforming in front of Black Widow as Iron Man and Captain America are searching a boiler room.

Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury in Secret Invasion, which focuses Fury and his longtime ally Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who attempt to stop a Skrull invasion of Earth led by Gravik. The cast includes Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Olivia Colman, Martin Freeman, Dermot Mulroney, Don Cheadle, and Cobie Smulders. The show marks the first series of Marvel Phase 5.

Secret Invasion is currently streaming on Disney Plus, with fans being whipped into a frenzy over that shock ending and a controversial AI title sequence. For a look ahead to what’s next, check our Secret Invasion release schedule and the complete guide to Marvel Phase 5.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.