Joss Whendon's S.H.E.I.L.D. TV Show

It has been announced that Joss Whedon is going to go back into TV with a new entry from Marvel for ABC in the 2013 season.  His new show is titled S.H.E.I.L.D, and it looks like the show will be spearheaded by his brother Jed Whedon and Jed's wife Maurissa Tancharoen.  

Also in the news about a month ago, is that Joss is signed on to not only to do the Avengers sequel, but is contracted with a free pass to write in all the other Marvel films in the coming line up. Basically what this means is that he get to shape these other movies for the lead in to The Avengers 2.  These movies include Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ant Man, League of Guardians, and then the Avengers 2.  And then there is talk about Marvel making shorts with run times about ten minutes each to introduce more B characters into the Marvel movie verse.  Characters like Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, maybe even the Black Panther.  And now a TV show. 

Marvel is trying to do in the film industry essentially what it does with it’s comic franchises.  They are making a universe where each character has their own story but they exist as part of a larger community.  This is what I was talking about before with my Marvel Movie Rights blog.  Since I have written that blog, Joss has the chance to make a project of tremendous scope that we have never seen before in Hollywood.

Let me tell you a little something about mister Whedon.  His writing style for the projects close to his heart like Buff the Vampire Slayer and Firefly is that before we ever see the first episode, he already has the whole series mapped out.  Like all Eight seasons of Buffy had the main arcs made or that Serenity was to be at about the end of season 2 of Firefly if it wasn’t prematurely cancelled.  He knew where he wanted the characters to go, what trials he wanted them to face, and how to make them who they will finally be.

Now knowing this, he is given a free pass from Marvel studios to dabble in any of their coming projects, make a movie that puts all the heroes together, and now a TV show not about any big heroes, but about the people in an organization that puts so much of the Marvel comic universe together.  Do you see where this is going?

S.H.E.I.L.D. can be a platform where you develop a show that maybe doesn’t directly interact with the film franchises but perhaps sets up small points for, or reacts to the outcomes of the films.  Maybe S.H.E.I.L.D. makes a weapon in the show for Captain America to use in his film.  Maybe Thor uncovers a piece of tech from the Elvish world that S.H.E.I.L.D develops.  Or maybe the characters discuss the ramifications of what the heroes do in a critical way, or about rebuilding after the destruction the hero fights often cause.  In the deleted scenes of the Avengers Joss wanted to set a darker tone that cast doubt on the idea of superheroes.  Maybe Joss makes us care about the characters he develops in the TV show so that he can kill them in the Avengers sequel and evoke emotion from the audience about these deaths who would otherwise just be fodder.

He could use it as a platform to further develop the characters and back stories for S.H.E.I.L.D. agents like Widow, Hawkeye, and even Fury, that haven’t been given a lot of attention in the films.  Of course it will all depend on the contracting, but you could even guest star the movie stars, and B characters into some of the episodes and story arcs.  You can explore a lot more of the concepts about S.H.E.I.L.D. and more of the more sinister global factions like AIM or Hydra.  It is a great platform to further develop the state of the world that the movies, being so action orientated, can’t spend the time to develop in the detail we would love to have not as fans but as people who enjoy stories.

With a writer like Joss, this idea is exciting because if anyone can do this it’s him.  With the movie franchise and now with a TV series, he can essentially pull the whole universe together and a story in magnitude that has not been known.  All of he infrastructure is there and now he just has to have the ambition to put it all together and if anyone could do this, I firmly believe that Joss Whedon could take on this monumental task and make something great.  In an interview about the Avengers Joss stated that the movie wasn’t a great movie, but rather a great experience.  Now he has everything he needs to not just make a great movie, but a great legacy of films.