As of late, Joss Whedon has been assembling a team for his new Marvel project for ABC known as ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’. With the crown jewel of Clark Gregg returning as Agent Phil Coulson, we’ve been getting news about who exactly will be in the series, but not much about what to expect. Now, thanks to ABC President Paul Lee, we have an inkling of an idea.
According to Collider, at a recent Television Critics Association event, Lee spoke about the upcoming pilot and the progress the team has been making so far. On Whedon’s involvement, he had this to say:
“He’s already working on the scripts for the series. We will have to work. We shot it in Los Angeles to make sure that he is free to work across his feature life and his television life, but I love to see Joss who of course has made many great television shows in his day, enjoying television as much as movies. That’s flattering for us. We love that.”
On the subject of budgets and technological advancements in the show, Lee expresses that the show will be an ambitious one for the medium:
“On the one hand, we have to make shows that can sustain for many, many years and we’d love to see ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ go not just from pilot but to series, and not just from series but to last a long time. We’re a long way from that. We’d love to do that and we’re able to be much more ambitious on television because of the technology available. At the same time, look, we are ambitious with the show and we’re certainly investing to the levels of ‘Once Upon a Time’ and that’s an ambitious show.”
Finally, the executive, who has only read the pilot and has not seen it, shares a little bit of what to expect this fall when the show premieres:
“The truth about Joss is he has some great relationships in it so there are a lot of really funny male/female relationships that go through it. But it’s also Joss too and there’s a lot of action. Look, what we do do, I talk about the emotion of the network, that it’s smart with heart. There is something which I talk less about, that’s very real about this network, is we have more co-viewed shows. Absolutely Marvel has the ability to bring the whole family around it.”
It’s not as much news as one would hope for per se as much as it is fancy network talk, but it’s good to hear that ABC is excited for this project. Though it hasn’t been given an official series order yet, Joss Whedon and Marvel have been a winning combination in the past, so the network and fans hope they’ll find success again to give us the first live-action Marvel show in this new era of superhero movies.
Are you excited for ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
