The identities of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents set to appear in the TV series produced by Joss Whedon have been declassified.
TVLine got their hands on the casting details for the pilot regarding the new faces we will see on ABC in the show set in the same universe as
The Avengers.
The pilot will be written and likely directed by
Avengers mastermind Whedon, and it remains to be seen which, if any, of the familiar faces from the big screen will appear to bridge the movie and TV version closer together. If that would happen, it would be a priority to keep that top secret, as many things are in the live action Marvel Universe.
According to the TVLine casting scoop, here are the Agents Whedon is looking to assemble:
SKYE: This late-20s woman sounds like a dream: fun, smart, caring and confident – with an ability to get the upper hand by using her wit and charm.
AGENT GRANT WARD: Quite the physical specimen and “cool under fire,” he sometimes botches interpersonal relations. He’s a quiet one with a bit of a temper, but he’s the kind of guy that grows on you.
AGENT ALTHEA RICE: Also known as “The Calvary,” this hard-core soldier has crazy skills when it comes to weapons and being a pilot. But her experiences have left her very quiet and a little damaged.
AGENT LEO FITZ and AGENT JEMMA SIMMONS: These two came through training together and still choose to spend most of their time in each other’s company. Their sibling-like relationship is reinforced by their shared nerd tendencies – she deals with biology and chemistry, he’s a whiz at the technical side of weaponry.
“It’s new characters. It needs to be its own thing. It needs to be adjacent [to the MCU] but you don’t want to do a show where you’re constantly going, ‘Iron Man just left, but he was totally here a minute ago.’ You want them to do their own thing,” Whedon told
Collider at the Toronto Film Festival last month.
While perhaps the easiest and most logical cross-over would be for Samuel L. Jackson to make an appearance as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. Cobie Smulders could also suit up for a quick cameo as Agent Maria Hill. But whether CBS would play nice and let her appear in an ABC show while she is still on How I Met Your Mother is an issue for the lawyers to figure out. I wouldn't count out Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson either. Who is to say flashbacks would not factor into the pilot, assuming the series is set in the post-Avengers timeline.
But Whedon assures fans that an underdog factor will be a major theme for the show, as all the agents will not possess superpowers like Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
“Well, what does S.H.I.E.L.D. have that the other superheroes don’t? And that, to me, is that they’re not superheroes. But they live in that universe. Even though they’re a big organization, that [lack of powers] makes them underdogs, and that’s interesting to me,” he also revealed in the
Collider interview.
