ABC Picks Up ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ For Next Season

This afternoon comes confirmation of the not at all surprising news that ABC has picked up Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to series for next season.

Marvels_Agents of SHIELD_Promo

This is not surprising news for a couple of reasons. Disney (which owns ABC and owns Marvel Studios) is riding that Marvel wave hard and fast until it crashes. With Iron Man 3 grossing $678.9 million dollars and counting after just 10 days of international release, and Marvel Studios rumored to generate 5% of Disney’s annual operating income all by itself, what Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige wants, he’s probably going to get.

This news is also good news for fans of the Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe. Not only is the pilot written and directed by Marvel’s The Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon, and not only will it star fan-favorite character Agent Phil Coulson, but Feige has stated that this show would be the perfect vehicle to showcase some of Marvel’s lower tier characters that couldn’t support their own films.

If you want a sneak peak at the show, ABC will air a “first look” promo during the season finale of Once Upon A Time this Sunday. Here’s how the show is described:

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet). From Executive Producers Joss Whedon (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”); Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”pilot co-writers (“Dollhouse,” “Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”); Jeffrey Bell (“Angel,” “Alias”); and Jeph Loeb (“Smallville”) comes Marvel’s first TV series.  “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

Marvels_Agents of SHIELD_Logo


Comments

  1. I’m really looking forward to this, but I’m kind of surprised that the (pictured) cast is overwhelmingly white. I’m not in favor of tokenism, but I always think of SHIELD as an extremely diverse organization.

    • I was thinking the same thing. It looks like every other show on TV.

    • Does Whedon ever get called on that? Going through university he was the darling of critics everywhere because of Buffy et al and his mainstream look at sexual politics but I never heard those same critics question his inability to cast more than one non-white actor or actress per show. He seems to get a free pass on representation from critics while I’ve seen fans bend themselves like a pretzel trying to make excuses to justify it.

    • Really?

    • Looking forward to this, but your right. I never noticed before but Whedon does not seem to prize diversity lmao.

    • I’ve seen people calling him out it before but it’s not a loud enough criticism. Zoe and Gunn aren’t enough.

    • Here’s all you need to know: (from Commentary!, which is on the Dr. Horrible DVD)
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmzegQUtFA

    • Hold on… There’s an asian woman in the pic. Do asians not count for diversity anymore? That’s gonna suck for my daughter’s college apps..

    • Chloe Bennet is also half-Asian. But that’s still only 2/6 of the principle cast so far. Compare that to a show like Scandal which this will be sharing a network with. You can get greater diversity and it’s not that hard.

      And for some reason Asians “don’t count” for a lot of people. Its a problem I had when the issues of diversity came up around the New 52. DC did a poor job getting more equitable representation but across the board it was people complaining that DC was all “white people” when more than a few books, including their biggest, were helmed by Asian-Americans.

      A teacher explained it to me recently that race in America is framed almost exclusively through the struggle between whites and blacks and all other races are considered by how closely they’re aligned with one of those two groups. Therefore Asians read as “White” and Latinos for instance read as “Black”.

    • I saw Ming-Na in the photo, that’s what actually got me thinking. She’s the + 1 or Zoe of the group, the female who kicks arse. But it got me thinking about Firefly and Buffy et al.

      This probably won’t be the full cast anyway. I seriously doubt they only have 6 reoccurring characters.

      That’s interesting on the race binary thing. I suppose that’s how racism works – us vs them. And ‘black and white’ is as simple as it gets symbolically. You don’t want any shades getting in the way of your prejudice because then it just complicates things.

      At uni I had to do some research on the way ‘whiteness’ was constructed and it was fascinating to see how, back in the day in America, the Irish had to work hard to convince people they were ‘white’. I guess that’s where that binary is in full force. Bizarre, interesting and depressing.

    • I was thinking that the photo was overwhelmingly young and a little too pretty.

    • I know the guy who played Gunn on Angel is going to be in this, so we’ll get some diversity…

  2. Damn. Looking at that photo… the son of Coul has charisma. THAT is his super power.

  3. Why does it bug me that they’re not wearing matching suits. WHY?!?

    • Give it time. However most of the Marvel movies have had just agents in regular looking suits.

      I wonder if the characters from Item 47 appear?

    • Maybe giving everyone matching leather suits would break the budget? Not to mention being uncomfortable.

  4. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    I hope they portray Nick Fury like Nanny from the Muppet Babies or any adult in a Peanuts cartoon.

  5. This is gonna be awesome! Once Upon A Time just got a shit load of viewers for their final 5mins of their finale!

    Let’s hope this is going to be as amazing we’re all imagining it will be. I wanna see all the superheros and villains in some capacity.

  6. Could be really cool.

    Love to see some references to, or appearances by, the likes of Constrictor, Taskmaster, Agent 13, et al.

  7. This would be a great way for Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and maybe even Daredevil to be introduced.

  8. Did I miss any mention of Maria Hill? I’ll be disappointed if her character doesn’t make an appearance . . .

    I’m only surprised that this took so long to be official. I’m definitely looking forward to it — there’s a lot of potential here . . .

  9. All I see is Agent Coulson and some random hipsters.

    • Ming-Na is 50. Can you believe it? She certainly looks younger. What a lovely and talented woman.

    • @TomiH: Hah, really? I’m no fashion maven, but those are all pretty mainstream, modern outfits in my part of the world.

      Still, I hope we’ll see some navy blue jump suits on the actual show.

  10. “…they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary”

    Anyone else get a Torchwood vibe from this? Not complaining. I love Marvel and I love Dr.Who/Torchwood.

    • Emm, Torchwood stayed fairly Geolocked the first few seasons. I didn’t get a Torchwood vibe, but if SHIELD is like that I hope it’s like Torchwood Season 1.

  11. I’m kinda mixed on this. I love the idea of a (another) Marvel live-action show, but I seriously doubt it’s gonna be filled with Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and anyone else who can’t get a movie. Plus if I watch a show about espionage I’d rather watch “Archer”. I’ll give it a chance tho and see how the sneak peak grabs me.

  12. This is my attempt at making this show. It has Ultron in it. Next to no one has seen it, so please watch, it’s like 4 minutes.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOoyrwElwqU

  13. Can Deadpool or Wolverine make a cameo, or does Fox have TV rights to the X-Men?

    • I would assume they have blanket rights across all media, otherwise what’s stopping Fox from making an Iron Man tv show of their own?

    • I Fox has the TV rights to the X-folks, they even sued Marvel over that craptastic Mutant X show, if I recall correctly…

  14. I have a bad feeling this will be like Arrow, a show I lost interest in really quickly, with all the cool stuff happening in the background or off screen, with onscreen stuff limited to these characters and their relationship drama.

    But since my expectations are so low, that leaves plenty of room for me to be pleasantly surprised!

    • Keep in mind “Arrow” is on CW, which specializes in teen drama and reruns. This is ABC, which has “Once Upon A Time” and ummm… Anyway just raise your expections 1/2 a notch maybe.