The cast and some of the producers of ABC‘s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. made their presentation to the TCA yesterday, and like the producers of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, provided some pretty great information. Not surprisingly, early in the session the question came up about movie cross-references.
According to EOnline, Joss Whedon addressed how much and how often the new series will reference characters and events from elsewhere in the Marvel universe, particularly from The Avengers and the next two Marvel movies, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
“There will be as much as we can allow,” he explained. “We’re still working that out. It’s a fluid process. The important thing is it’s a fun opportunity, but it’s not…It’s not an Easter egg hunt. We don’t want to be an Easter egg farm. We want people to come back for these people,” of S.H.I.E.L.D. “This show needs to work for people who haven’t seen the movies.”
Thank goodness. At least in this case the Easter eggs would be considered appropriate, universe-related references. Nothing irks me more than shows that reference other shows that have nothing to do with the current show… sorry, I digress.
Here’s some even better news, though, for we fans of Firefly, Dollhouse, and other Joss Whedon creations: “Their biggest note after we presented the thing was they wanted to make sure our investment in the characters and their interaction and their evolution was as big as the case of the week,” he explained. “They wanted to make sure people were coming for the recurring story…to me, that’s how I do all of my shows. They basically said, ‘Can you please do what you do and not learn a new skill?'” Thank you, ABC.
Another major question looms over the show, for those of us who have seen The Avengers, and more specifically, who watched the beloved Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, take one for the team. How exactly are they explaining his seeming resurrection? Whedon revealed that the explanation will roll out over more than one episode. According to “Coulson” himself, when Gregg took the call from Whedon that explained the answer, “I hung up the phone very deeply on board.”
The show will not center on the superheroes, but on the rest of the world, post-the New York invasion depicted in, and thwarted by, The Avengers. “The idea of the people who didn’t get the hammer, who didn’t get the super serum. The TV show is very much about that sense: ‘well, what about the rest of us? How do we cope with this?'”
After the panel, executive producer Jed Whedon tweeted this:
Close to the poster for @AgentsofSHIELD. RT 500 times. @LIL_Henstridge will help fill in the blanks. #AgentsofSHIELD pic.twitter.com/oD6qJsgXaQ
— Jed Whedon (@jedwhedon) August 5, 2013
Nice! But here’s the real official poster:
And what the heck, let’s just take another look at the very excellent trailer for this series:
Trailer: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Bring it!
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., starring Clark Gregg, Brett Dalton, Ming-na Wen, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Chloe Bennet, premieres Tuesday, September 24 at 8/7c on ABC.
