Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D to ABC!

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Admiral_Young, Aug 29, 2012.

  1. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    In what parallel universe is this?
     
  2. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I would weep openly.
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    You mean "the Son of Coul." ;)


    That character is not our Coulson. He's Principal Woodman as played by Clark Gregg. The real Coulson is cool and fun; this guy is just a stock rigid authority figure for the teen heroes to rebel against. He's even more out of character than that show's version of Spider-Man, who's the same snarky, irresponsible teen hero that Man of Action write in every one of their shows. I mean, seriously, Spidey is the last character it makes sense to write as lacking responsibility.


    It was addressed in a throwaway line, that Odin had to harness immense energies to find a way to send Thor back to Earth after losing the Bifrost. And Loki had others' help. (And of course Loki's presence on Earth after his "death" scene was established in Thor's post-credits scene.)
     
  4. wamdue

    wamdue Admiral Admiral

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    the only reason they are not yet back, is because there has been no Firefly for them to return to.
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^That's an odd interpretation. Plenty of characters killed in Whedon shows haven't come back to life. Leaving out those who died in finales, they include Jenny Calendar, Kendra, Tara, Buffy's mother, Doyle, and Jonathan. You could make a case for Darla, who was actually resurrected twice (first when she was sired as a vampire), but whose third death was final.

    Also, it's simplistic and misguided to assume that all Whedon shows are identical in approach. All the resurrections we've seen in his canon to date have been in the Buffyverse, which is blatantly a fantasy universe where magic and a variety of afterlives exist and it's actually quite common for the dead to return in some form (heck, the whole premise depends on the existence of vampires). And in Dollhouse, the ability of an individual's identity (or at least a copy thereof) to survive death by transferring to a new body is one of the main ramifications of the core premise that the show explored, so it's built into that universe in a completely different way. But Firefly/Serenity is a science fiction universe that, aside from a sloppy grasp of astrophysics and terraforming, is fairly naturalistic. There are no aliens, no faster-than-light travel, no teleportation -- really the one fanciful element is the existence of telepathy. The closest thing we've seen to a resurrection in that universe was in the first comic, where a character Mal shot in the pilot turned out to have not quite died from the injury. Clearly the ground rules are different, so it doesn't follow that resurrection would be as feasible.
     
  6. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I thought he was fun in the last one with the Beetle but that's my only experience with the animated version.
     
  7. wamdue

    wamdue Admiral Admiral

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    fair enough about the Firefly verse, no Buffy style magic in that. Some future tech of course, but no magic.
     
  8. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    Casting news!

    Interestingly, this is not one of the characters described in the recently released casting call sheet.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    No, it is one of those characters; they've just renamed her from Althea Rice to Melinda May. It's quite common for character names to change in the development of a show.
     
  10. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    ^
    I was just going by what the article said...

     
  11. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, that was some poor work on the part of the writer, there. Melinda May's description matches the one used for Althea Rice in the initial list of characters.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, the article said that, but clearly their own writer failed to follow the link he included, since that link makes it clear the character description is the same. I've seen the same news reported by multiple other sites in the past day, and they all recognized that May and Rice were the same character. Newsarama just fumbled the ball.
     
  13. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    An AV Club commenter shoots first:

    Anyhow good fol ol' Chun-Li! :p
     
  14. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's actually me. Small world.
     
  15. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Just waiting for her character to unexpectedly drop Chinese phrases from time to time
     
  16. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    S.H.I.E.L.D. to start shooting in January.

    I hope that, for the pilot at least, they spring for a movie name or two. If Nick Fury or Tony Stark appeared in the pilot, they'd make a chunk of the budget back in the DVD/Blu-Ray sales alone.

    ETA: If they are to explain away Coulson's survival (and I realize that his survival is still actually just an assumption) bringing in SLJ for a cameo would seem a natural fit.
     
  17. arch101

    arch101 Commodore Commodore

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    I could see RD Jr doing a cameo appearance as Stark. I don't think he'd be above a TV appearance to help the larger franchise. No IM, just one or two Stark scenes.
     
  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I can see Jackson making a brief appearance in the pilot for the same reason. But he'll probably be too busy featuring in every single other movie that's currently in production. :p
     
  19. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm sure probably Coulson will "come back from the dead," but could this not be a prequel set before the Avengers maybe?
    Is he to be in every episode as a regular, or just the pilot?
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I read an item saying that some comment had been made that ambiguously implied that he might only be in the pilot. But I'm skeptical of that, since Whedon's words when Gregg's involvement was announced were, "He's headlining the S.H.I.E.L.D. show and always was." "Headlining" means having the lead role, not making a cameo in the pilot.