The character wasn’t the biggest name in comic books and the actor, Robert Downey Jr., wasn’t a massive star, but the film was a huge hit and its success led to the decision to take a little post-credits scene starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and expand on it to create an interconnected series of films that existed within the same universe, just as comic books had been doing for decades.
It came to be known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it has changed the way we all go to the movies today.
It all started in 2008 with a little movie called Iron Man.