'Iron Man' Post-Credits Avengers Initiative Scene Was Initially Just A Lark

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of Hollywood's biggest success stories. 18 movies in a connected universe is quite the accomplishment itself, even before you consider the billions of dollars the MCU has made at the box office.

But before Black Panther was a cultural phenomenon or director Taika Waititi brought comic icon Jack Kirby's art to life in Thor: Ragnarok, the whole universe kicked off with a single movie in 2008: Iron Man.

Throughout Iron Man, we saw the origin story of a character that was relatively unknown at the time. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark certainly didn't carry the marketability that Marvel power hitters like Spider-man or Wolverine.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and company took a chance on Iron Man to launch their massive cinematic universe and to this point, it's paid off. Iron Man director Jon Favreau, however, says a change was made to the original script in order to start the universe off right.

The first post-credits scene in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was "a lark," according to a Favreau interview with EW.

"That was a bit of a lark." Favreau said while talking about the scene that included Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury introducing himself to Tony Stark.

"I wanted to include Easter eggs that the fans would appreciate and we thought the idea of a post-credit scene it could be fun. It was something that wasn't really in the script originally."

Favreau went on to explain that once he read The Ultimates comic book and saw a reimagined Nick Fury, he had to include it in the movie.

"Kevin [Feige] was way into it, too. Kevin really lit up. We worked on that dialog together. We were very careful how we selected the words," Favreau remembered. "'You're part of a bigger world now, a bigger universe,' and 'the Avengers Initiative,' laid breadcrumbs for what was to come."

Since that moment, post-credits scenes have been a staple in Marvel movies. While most MCU flicks will come with a pair of scenes either wrapping up one of the movie's minor plot lines or teasing the next film on Marvel's slate.

Avengers: Infinity War is sure to have a few post-credits scenes when it hits the silver screen on April 27, 2018. Once Infinity War comes to pass, the next Marvel Studios film on the schedule is Ant-man and the Wasp, which is slated for release on July 6, 2018.