Talk has been circling in recent weeks that Marvel would be expanding their Cinematic Universe to the small screen as well, and now it has officially got the green light.
Following the enormous success of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers earlier this year, ABC have now ordered a S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot episode, which himself will write, and is set to direct, schedule permitting.
S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) has been a growing part of Phase One in the Marvel films, kicking off at the end of Iron Man and coming to full fruition in The Avengers.
As of yet, there’s no word yet on who will be starring, so we don’t know if there will be any familiar faces making an appearance, but we can keep our fingers crossed.
With a bit of luck, we might get some familiar faces from Whedon’s much-loved frequent collaborator cast that didn’t star in The Avengers – Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku, Amy Acker, Fran Kranz, Alan Tudyk, the list goes on.
According to Variety, quoting Whedon at the Writers Guild Theater last night,
“the storyline for the proposed series will be largely “autonomous” from the Avengers sequel feature that is also in the works. The series will revolve around the activities of the top-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage organisation featured in The Avengers.”
Whedon will be writing the series with past collaborators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), and marks Marvel’s first live-action TV series to get the green light – with a Hulk series also amongst projects being developed at ABC.
Production on the pilot is set to start immediately, and naturally, we can’t wait to see it. Whedon is quite possibly the most talented television programme creator, and with him having now become such an integral part of the future Marvel Universe on both the big and small screen, things are going to get very interesting. More as we get it.
Source: Deadline.
