Agents Of “S.H.I.E.L.D”: Joss Whedon, Clark Gregg On Coulston Return

Coulson lives! After nearly a year of rumors and anticipation among Marvel fans, ABC officially ordered a first season of the new television series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” last week sending Marvel fans through the roof with excitement.

CHLOE BENNET, ELIZABETH HENSTRIDGE, IAIN DE CAESTECKER, CLARK GREGG, MING-NA WEN, BRETT DALTON

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is set in the same world as last summer’s blockbuster smash “The Avengers,” which united Marvel’s muscled superheroes Iron Man, Captain American, Thor, the Hulk and others, and featured the international law enforcement and espionage organization.

Clark Gregg plays Agent Phil Coulson in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (Bob D'Amico / ABC)

Clark Gregg plays Agent Phil Coulson in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (Bob D’Amico / ABC)

Clark Gregg, who played S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in “The Avengers” and previous Marvel films, is reprising the role for the TV series, donning his suit and sunglasses once more to lead a team of crime-fighting agents: Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage; Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), expert pilot and martial artist; Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), brilliant engineer; Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), genius bio-chemist; and new recruit Skye (Chloe Bennet), a computer hacker.

The series, which will air Tuesdays this fall, comes with an enviable pedigree: The creative team includes “The Avengers” director and scribe Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (“Dollhouse,” “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”), Jeffrey Bell (“Angel,” “Alias”) and Jeph Loeb (“Heroes,” “Smallville”).

Hero Complex sat down with Whedon and Gregg earlier this spring to chat about bringing Coulson back after his climactic scene in “The Avengers” for “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Check out the “S.H.I.E.L.D.” cast in the gallery above and the series’ trailer below.

HC: What can you tell us about the S.H.I.E.L.D. series?

CG: It’s a pretty spectacular phone call to get. “Listen, I know you were dead, but …” The executives at Marvel had joked about being in meetings where they were talking about how to bring Coulson back, but you know, I was there. There was a lot of blood. I felt pretty dead. So I was wary as to how can we do that in a way that doesn’t feel like it undermines any of the magic that I thought was there in “The Avengers,” and as soon as I heard the concept and saw the script, I realized it was worth doing. There’s very little that we can say about it. It’s post-”Avengers.” It works with the “Avengers” universe. That’s what’s exciting about it for me.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D…..trailer

HC: Joss, when you started working on this show, was it a goal for you to get Clark back?

JW: It came up, “What about a S.H.I.E.L.D. show?” And I said, “Oh, that makes perfect sense.” And then, you know, “What about Coulson?” And obviously, the first question, was, “Will this upset the integrity of what we did in ‘The Avengers?’” You don’t want to do that. I worked in comics and TV and fantasy for a long time, and I know that there’s a right way and a wrong way to do stuff like that. I think my first experience with it was with Ripley in “Alien: Resurrection.” I think Sigourney [Weaver] is wonderful, and she was playing the thing that made it work for me, which was, if we’re going to bring her back, it’s gotta be really weird for her that we did that. She’s gotta feel completely alien, literally, and the whole idea for her in that movie was built off of that.

It’s like, “If we were going to have Coulson, how would we even do it?” Well, we’d do exactly this. That’s what I pitched to [Clark] on the phone, that’s what’s in the script, word for word, and it’s all about earning everything, so that people don’t feel that you lied, or that you pulled one over on them, that you have an explanation that you buy. Because at the end of the day, the S.H.I.E.L.D. show, it works. And I liked the idea when I heard it, I liked the idea when I developed it into an actual show, I like everything about it. But what I felt then is what, after filming, I feel even more strongly: I wouldn’t want to do it without my man Phil Coulson, without Clark. He’s got a thing that I call a Columbo thing. He’s so low-key, he’s never overselling, and then when he turns out to be the smartest person in the room, everybody else is like, “Oh …” And you can’t buy that. You can’t train for it. Some people just have it.

CG: Aww. Let’s make out. I’m crimson.

JOSS WHEDON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)

HC: Clark, you’ve enjoyed a prolific and successful career before the Marvel films came along. What’s it like to now be a part of Comic-Con culture, and to have such devoted fans?

CG: It’s beautiful to me because certainly any false ideas that I had that I might be a geek were knocked out of me the first time I went to Comic-Con before any of this happened, and I realized that I was really just scratching the surface with my love of comic books and sci-fi. It was kind of moderate. But I loved it enough that I really wanted to be included in “Iron Man,” even when it was just a couple of lines, and the stuff that’s happened consequently, [building to] the ridiculous, brilliant culmination of Agent Coulson in “The Avengers” that Joss gave me, has just kind of been a dream come true for me.

Source: Hero Complex

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