André Braugher was once cast as a major Marvel character, so why didn’t he play the part?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide: Life on the Street star André Braugher has died at the age of 61. Tributes are flooding in from across the entertainment industry for the two-time Emmy winner, who was an unforgettable presence across stage and screen.

But there’s one footnote in his life that should be very interesting for Marvel fans. Braugher played ‘General T. Hager’ in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Hager was an entirely original character for the movie, developing an antagonistic relationship with the Fantastic Four and ultimately bringing in Doctor Doom to study the Silver Surfer.

The thing is, throughout the film’s development and casting, General Hager wasn’t called that. He was General Nick Fury. Yup, Braugher was cast as Nick Fury before Samuel L. Jackson even had a sniff at the role that’d go on to make him an MCU mainstay. Proof of this is that one of Hager’s conversations with Mr Fantastic in the movie is word-for-word lifted from dialogue between Fury and Fantastic in Ultimate Extinction.

What happened?

During filming Fox suddenly realized that they didn’t actually own the rights to Nick Fury, as the character was still in the possession of Marvel Studios and were included with The Avengers IP they based the entirety of Phase 1 around. A find-and-replace job was done on the script, they pulled off Braugher’s eyepatch, and the role was downgraded from Fury to Hager.

Admittedly the development of the MCU and the reception of Rise of the Silver Surfer wouldn’t have been hugely affected by Braugher playing Fury, but it would have been an interesting note in the cinematic history of the character, with Braugher able to stand proudly alongside David Hasselhoff and Samuel L. Jackson as silver screen Nick Furys.