Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D to ABC!
- Thread starter Admiral_Young
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Interesting factoid, this is also the first Marvel TV project that has been greenlit from development to production. The others that Christopher mentioned for instance, are still in development.
I'm sure there will be a past Whedon show actor as one of the regulars on this. Possibly more than one... There will definitely be guest star appearances as well.
I think the show could also be a good platform to then 'spin-off' into other areas. We've heard Cloak & Dagger and Mockingbird be mentioned as possibilities for shows in the past. You could easily see them worked into this show. I could even see ABC do something like you had them appear for a few episodes in SHIELD and then ABC-FAMILY would premier that character's show as a summer series.
I think the show could also be a good platform to then 'spin-off' into other areas. We've heard Cloak & Dagger and Mockingbird be mentioned as possibilities for shows in the past. You could easily see them worked into this show. I could even see ABC do something like you had them appear for a few episodes in SHIELD and then ABC-FAMILY would premier that character's show as a summer series.
Because there are lots of threats that are below the Avengers notice. Stuff like dealing with small bases full of AIM operatives or stopping Baron Strucker as he tries to reform Hydra or the Machinesmith starts taking over the LMD's. All kinds of things go on that dont require Avengers.
Oh, that's right. Thanks. I'd forgotten those shows ran concurrently, that Whedon was overseeing three shows at once.
So yeah, that makes my point even better, because that means both Firefly and Dollhouse had only one Whedon veteran each in their regular casts, and Summer Glau was barely a Whedon vet at that point, having appeared in only one Angel episode (although that was the entirety of her onscreen acting experience prior to Firefly).
Therefore, the assumption that SHIELD's regular cast will or must include plenty of Whedon veterans is unsupported by prior precedent. There's also the common-sense consideration that lots of Whedon veterans have gone on to have successful careers on other shows and thus wouldn't be available anyway. I'm sure we'll be seeing Whedon vets in guest and recurring roles, but we can't assume we'll see any in regular roles.
Ooh, cool idea -- build an interconnected Marvel Television Universe as an adjunct of the Cinematic Universe.
Because it's not just about the Avengers. It's about taking the interconnectedness that's always been part of the Marvel Universe in comics and bringing it to the big screen. The reason the MCU focuses on the Avengers is basically because, by chance, Marvel hadn't licensed the movie rights to any of the main Avengers to other studios the way they had with the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, etc. If they could get back the rights to those characters (as they already have with the Punisher and may be about to with Daredevil), then we might well see them being added to the so-called "Avenger-verse."
Besides, SHIELD has been played up as a major element of the MCU from the beginning -- to the point that the Avengers were portrayed as Nick Fury's pet project to begin with, unlike in the comics and the animated show where it's the heroes' idea. So one could argue that the MCU is already more the "SHIELD-verse" than the "Avenger-verse." We've already had two Agent Coulson short films and a new short film about two other SHIELD agents cleaning up the post-Chitauri mess, so SHIELD already has an onscreen life beyond the superheroes. And there's an MCU-continuity tie-in comic called Fury's Big Week that focuses on what Fury, Coulson, Widow, and Hawkeye were doing behind the scenes of the previous MCU movies, showing how the whole movie continuity ties together. SHIELD is the unifying thread of the whole MCU. It's a natural for a TV spinoff.
And of course there's the fundamental consideration that TV shows don't have as much time or money to spend on special effects as movies do. Superpowers are expensive to portray. And TV shows about relatively normal people in relatively normal formats like procedurals or espionage dramas are able to attract a wider, more mainstream audience than TV shows with high-concept sci-fi/fantasy premises and thus potentially get better ratings. It's really not surprising at all that they'd leave the big, way-out fantasy stuff to the movies and focus a TV show on something more "normal" like SHIELD.
It's good to hear that they actually had a concept they thought would be good for a show, and it was just fortuitous that Marvel was looking to do one, instead of it being the other way around.
On the one hand, I'm glad that Marvel's TV and movie plans are in good hands with Whedon. On the other hand, I regret that his output for the next few years is going to have to be within the limits of what Marvel/Disney is comfortable with, and that he probably won't be able to get as daring and adult and experimental and philosophical as he did in his original shows. I mean, I gather he intends to keep doing small film projects that will let him be more himself, but still, what I would've liked to see from another Whedon TV series is probably more than this SHIELD series will be able to contain.
But on another hand this series might actually have more than two seasons. Plus he's directing the second Avengers movie so I do think he's got a lot to keep himself busy.
I'm very curious to see exactly what they're going to be doing with this. From what I've read, it seems like the comics has a pretty complex mythology, so it seems like there should be plenty of material. It also seems to me like the perfect way to bring the whole Marvel Universe into one show.
I guess my worry is that by weaving it around and underneath these huge, epic movies, the TV series will feel small and dull by comparison. "Lower Decks" was a good episode, but I don't want to watch an entire TV series about junior officers on the Enterprise. Y'know?
I guess I'm just eager to learn more about this show and see what direction it's going to take.
I guess I'm just eager to learn more about this show and see what direction it's going to take.
Not necessarily. I mean, Chris Nolan was WB's 'Godfather' for the DC projects but was still able to make the likes of Inception.
Whedon has always been able to stretch himself across a number of projects simultaneously - Buffy and Angel aired at the same time and FF debuted while both were on air. And even as he was making The Avengers, he was able to make a low-budget movie on the QT.
I was thinking along those lines as well. Maybe once or twice you get an actual C-list villain show up, during sweeps month or something. Perhaps Stiltman or Trapster is on a crime spree. Then maybe for a season finale if you could swing a cameo by Maria Hill(which is most logical option given the actress at this time imo) the audience gets that and she makes mention of how Fury is looking at this units performance.
Hmm, interesting thought. It occurs to me that movie and TV rights don't always go together. We know that Marvel doesn't have the movie rights to Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, or Daredevil (though the latter may revert to Marvel if Fox can't get a movie into production pretty soon), but is it possible that they retain the live-action television rights to some of those characters or their supporting casts?
^^^
Wasn't that a late, late '90's issue though that would've overlapped somewhat with the first X-Men film debuting in 2000.
I would be curious to know what the status is of various Marvel properties in relation to TV use now. That could have some bearing on the discussion of what we'd like to see, speculate on within reason for this TV series. Most seem to know now where the Movie rights for each film property are located.
Wasn't that a late, late '90's issue though that would've overlapped somewhat with the first X-Men film debuting in 2000.
I would be curious to know what the status is of various Marvel properties in relation to TV use now. That could have some bearing on the discussion of what we'd like to see, speculate on within reason for this TV series. Most seem to know now where the Movie rights for each film property are located.
