Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Gets Series Order

ABC has given a first season order to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the new series developed by Joss Whedon.  The series will star Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson along with a cast playing non-superhero roles in a superpower world. 

The first look at the new series will occur Sunday night during the season finale of Once Upon a Time (which was successful enough this year to spawn a spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, during this round of ABC series orders) at 8:00 ET/PT Sunday, May 12.

This is the second announcement in two days of Disney using Marvel properties in its other divisions (ABC is owned by Disney); Big Hero 6 will be the first Disney Animation film featuring Marvel characters (see "'Big Hero 6' Gets Date"). 

Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen wrote the pilot.  Jeph Loeb and Jeffrey Bell are exec producers along with Joss Whedon and the pilot co-writers). 

ABC Orders Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot

ABC has ordered a pilot episode for S.H.I.E.L.D., a live-action series from Joss Whedon, Marvel TV, and ABC Studios. Whedon will co-write the show along with his frequent collaborators, Maurissa Tancharoen and her husband, Whedon’s brother, Jed. The trio collaborated on Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and Tancharoen and Jed also worked on The Avengers with Joss. No word yet on any potential casting moves for the series--is it too much to ask for Samuel L. Jackson?

Just a couple of weeks ago Joss Whedon signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Studios for both movies and television that runs through 2015, and even before the announcement of the S.H.I.E.L.D. project, Whedon’s influence at Marvel was already apparent in the studio’s interest in having Whedon’s friend (and off-beat genre director) James Gunn direct the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

According to Deadline, "Joss Whedon is also set to direct the pilot, schedule permitting." This announcement marks a return to TV for Whedon who created the cult hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Dollhouse series.

Marvel has had several live-action TV projects, including a Hulk series and Jessica Jones, in development longer than S.H.I.E.L.D., but this is the first Marvel live-action prime time series to get the green light since the company’s acquisition by Disney.



Of course the network still has to like the pilot in order to get the show on the air, but there is no doubt that a successful Marvel-based series on ABC would provide yet another boost for the comics market.

Whedon's Hulk is Different

One interesting change to The Avengers lineup is the way in which director Joss Whedon has treated the character of Bruce Banner/The Hulk. There was little or no physical resemblance between the most famous Banner/Hulk combination, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, who played the bifurcated character in the popular long-running Hulk television series. Even in the modern Hulk movies Eric Bana and Edward Norton morphed into to giant CGI characters with few physically characteristics tying them to the actors playing Banner, but Whedon has kept his Hulk reasonably-sized with a heavy resemblance to actor Mark Ruffalo.


Mark RuffaloFor The Avengers Whedon not only secured the services of a top flight actor to play Bruce Banner in Mark Ruffalo, he was determined to make his Hulk look and move like a greatly expanded version of Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, though Whedon also made sure that his Hulk was never more than 8 and half-feet tall. One of the most recent stills released by Marvel Studios indicates that Whedon has definitely succeeded in making his Hulk resemble Ruffalo.

Whedon used motion-capture technology with Ruffalo to make sure that his Hulk and Bruce Banner moved in the same way, and he decided to make the characters resemble each other as much as possible as Whedon told Comic Book Movie: “Very early on we decided to build the Hulk's face off of Mark's, not just in terms of what he was going to do movement-wise in playing the character, but also the actual physicality of it, including the bone structure and contours of the eyes and mouth. We really wanted to bridge the gap between the characters so that when he turns into the Hulk, you go, 'Oh my God, that's Bruce Banner! Only he is big and green and very angry!”

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More "Avengers" Images Assembled

Marvel has released five hi-res images from Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, which is slated to debut on May 4th, and which some analysts think just might give The Dark Knight Rises a run for its money as the top superhero film of 2012. However that particular competition turns out, the new images concentrate on character (especially Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury) and cast interaction rather than on action or spectacle like some of the previously release images.

Skrulls Aren't "The Avengers" Villains

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has shot down rumors that the alien menace in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is the shape-shifting Skrulls. When photographers manage to capture a shot of mysterious alien inscriptions on “wreckage” at one of The Avengers location shoots, it appeared to confirm earlier speculation based on a supposed script leak that the Skrulls just might be involved in the new Avengers movie.

The ScarJo CoverSpeaking to Empire Magazine for an Avengers cover story, Feige was typically definitive: “It’s not Skrulls, I’ve been clear about that. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we’re not setting up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

"Dollhouse Canceled"

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, which premiered to weak ratings this season , has been canceled by Fox, according to the Hollywood Reporter . It’s expected to finish its thirteen episode season, but it’s not clear when the episodes will air. It has been off the air during sweeps month and was slated to resume airing new episodes in December .

The fact that the series has been canceled does not necessarily mean the property is dead. Whedon took the ideas from his canceled series Firefly and turned them into the theatrical release Serenity, after the devotion of fans showed that there would be a market for the film.