It’s been a little over two weeks since Marvel’s live-action, Joss Whedon-helmed TV series ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has been greenlit and gradually we’re finding out more and more information about it. First, we found out that the Avengers wouldn’t be a part (or, at least, a major part) of the show. Now, thanks to /Film, we’re getting more details about who the cast will comprise of.
Previously, when we found out that the heroes wouldn’t be featured on the ABC pilot. I speculated that Whedon might include some S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel that we haven’t seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet like Spider-Woman, Mockingbird, and Sharon Carter. I also noted that it’s possible that Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and maybe even Phil Coulson could make appearances on the show. Now, in an interview at the Toronto Film Festival, the director revealed that the cast would contain characters that we haven’t met yet. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:
“It’s new characters. It needs to be its own thing. It needs to be adjacent [to the movies]. 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 go off on their own thing, and say, well, what has S.H.I.E.L.D. got that the heroes don’t have? And part of that for me is, they’re not superheroes, but they live in that universe. That makes them a little bit — even though they’re a big organization — underdogs, and so that’s really interesting to me.”
Still no indication either way about Fury, Hill, or Coulson, but I suspect that they won’t really be included since the one consistent comment that we’ve been getting is that Whedon wants to keep the show separate from the movies, despite both taking place in the same universe. Plus, this show could also be an opportunity to showcase new S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that could eventually go on to have bigger roles in the movies.
Although, if Whedon decides to bring in a character from the movies, I hope it’s Dum-Dum Dugan. In the comics, after his time with Captain America and the Howling Commandos, he joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep on fighting. Not only am I a fan of Dugan and his signature bowler hat, but I am also a fan of Neal McDonough, who portrayed the character in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’.
Dum Dum DuganNo matter who he decides to include or not, I’m pretty sure Joss Whedon has this situation under control. In Joss we trust.