Recently ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘ executive producers Jed Whedon (‘Spartacus: War of the Damned’) and Maurissa Tancharoen (‘Dollhouse’) sat down and had a chance to talk a bit about the show, where it’s from, and where it’s going. There are no direct spoilers in here but reading through the answers you can get a vibe of what the producers want to cover with the show. How much of that will translate to the small screen remains to be seen, but it seems ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ will have some sort of tie in with the Marvel cinematic universe in terms of existing characters and how they deal with the show’s new characters and the types of problems they end up dealing with.

One of the fun things about S.H.I.E.L.D. in the cinematic universe is that they aren’t the all encompassing organization that they currently are in the comic world. They have primarily been to date the clean up crew, trying to keep a lid on the super hero world. ‘The Avengers‘ has changed that and opened the eyes of the public that superheroes exist.

With that kind of knowledge Tancharoen says that “Yeah, and so there are consequences to that. People are rattled and yeah, so that’s what will be explored.” With Whedon following up that “And S.H.I.E.L.D.’s job description has sort of changed. They were supposed to keep these kinds of things secret, but that ship has sailed. Now their job is more about helping people deal with this and navigating all those new questions. What happens when there are gods in the world, what happens to regular people? It’s not just people wanting to be famous now, they want to be super and there are a lot of questions that come along with that alien invasion. And so that’s a lot of stuff that we explore.”

So while they had a hidden Hellicarrier in the movie, now they are going to have a much more public face.

They plan on having the show follow the ‘X-Files’ model in various ways. There will be an overall story arc that is being followed but episodes will also be self contained. You won’t have to see every episode for the show to make sense. (Personally I’m a little down on this method of television as I love season long story arcs but I have faith in the Whedons.)

According to Whedon:

“Yeah, we definitely don’t want anybody ever to watch an episode and have to have watched all the others. That’s definitely a goal of ours. But we think there’s a way to do that, [similarly to] the way that they’ve done it with [Marvel films] where it’s just a better experience if you have been keeping track. And also we’re pretty sure that we will be asking enough interesting questions that people will want to hear the answers. At least that’s our goal.”

So with that in mind, I do like how having seen all the films made each of them better.

Of course, who will they be going after if an enemy is changing each episode? Well the two producers chimed in together to say “I don’t think we can’t be too specific about that but yes, we will have – recurring elements.”

So while it might not be a single big bad character, we will see some recurring ones. Sounds like a perfect way to tie in Hydra, A.I.M., and, depending who owns the rights to them these days, possibly even The Hand. Hell, if we go just with some of Captain America and Thor villains we could include references to henchmen from the Masters of Evil, Serpent Society, and the Wrecking Crew. All of these groups, aside from the last, have henchmen that could be carrying out nefarious plots and be a good match against S.H.I.E.L.D.. The options are endless!

That’s all conjecture and threats have been hinted as both otherworldly and from Earth. Specially since the show won’t be an Easter egg hunt. So aside from aliens they may end up against, Whedon mentioned,:

“And, you know, on Earth there have been the origins of a couple superpowers in scientific experiments, either successes or experiments gone wrong. But [the threats are] going to come from all over. There’s enough to deal with in a world where those things exist. You know, if a house got stepped on by a giant, it’s a huge tragedy. It doesn’t have to be about the giant. So while we will be tapping into all the supernatural stuff, there’s plenty of human stories to be told in that world where this stuff exists.“

Experiments gone wrong? Robots? Super powered humans? Supernatural? There’s a lot to pick from right there. I’ll admit I’m not too surprised with anything supernatural being brought up with Dr. Strange rumored to be the at the forefront of the expanding Marvel Universe after ‘The Avengers: Age Of Ultron‘. I’m betting we’ll see a hint or two for that in the first couple of seasons.

So are you still as excited as ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ as I am? Who do you think an ongoing villain or group of villains might be in the show? Sound off below!

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ starring Brett Dalton, Ming-Na Wen, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Chloe Bennet, and Clark Gregg premieres on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 8:00pm on ABC.

Source: The Huffington Post.