Samuel L. Jackson has confirmed Kevin Feige’s prediction that Iron Man 3 will be, with the exception of the title character, an Avengers-free zone.  Jackson told Total Film magazine, "I think my next time as Nick Fury is in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, because I’m not in Iron Man 3.  None of the Avengers are in Iron Man 3.  It’s a standalone Iron Man movie."

 

Since Jackson isn’t playing Nick Fury in Thor: The Dark World, this means that audiences will have to wait until the Captain America sequel unspools in April of 2014.  Of course there is always the possibility that Jackson will appear in some form or another in the new S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, though so far there has been no announcement of how Joss Whedon and the other writers working on the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot are going to deal with the character of Nick Fury.