Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill in Marvel’s The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com
ABC has ordered a pilot for a live-action television series from Marvel’s The Avengers writer-producer Joss Whedon according to Deadline. Whedon will co-write and possibly direct!
S.H.I.E.L.D. is the peacekeeping organization run by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as seen in Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. The pilot will be written by Whedon, his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) were agents of SHIELD.
Can we get Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) out of her contract and in this show?! I love Maria Hill!
What if Marvel’s The Avengers had opened this way? SHIELD Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) reports to The Council in this alternate opening to the big screen version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes courtesy Marvel.com.
Marvel’s The Avengers is on Blu-ray September 25th. Joss Whedon is signed on for a sequel and a television series (starring SHIELD? Maria Hill? Cobie?)
Marvel’s ultimate boy scout in the hands of the writer known for chronicling the bad boys and gals of Marvel. Rick Remender (Punisher, Venom, Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers) is launching a brand new Captain America #1 this November with legendary John Romita Jr. Remender is following Ed Brubaker’s acclaimed and extensive run. The writer tells Marvel.com his own history with the Sentinel of Liberty.
“SECRET WARS is what brought me into comic books. That was my first contact with Cap. That led me into his ongoing series, around #294-295 when The Red Skull and his daughters were hatching their big plot against Steve. That was great stuff; a lot of interesting stuff to get pulled into. There was plenty of history there and how they were handling the Red Skull and Captain America relationship—I remember being very grabbed by that. A few issues later Captain Britain showed up and that’s when I started falling in love with that character, too.”
What does Cap stand for?
“Tenacity. The character, in my head, was always about [that at] his core. He never gives up, he never quits. He’s a role model. That’s a term that comes a little bit clichéd and trite I suppose, but that’s sort of the beauty of who he is. He’s a patriotic soldier directed by a personal ethical compass, belief in the American dream and faith in his fellow man. At the same time we’ve seen that he’s very clever and roguish, quick with the drill comment on occasion, but he’s also a leader at the core of it. That was something that I definitely wanted to dig into when I took on the new series and we will be quite a bit.”
Expect a change in tone with Remender. While Ed Brubaker focused on SHIELD and spies, Remender will turn up the sci-fi factor.
“It’s almost like “Kirby Sci-Fi Indiana Jones.” High adventure dipped in sci-fi spy fantasy with heavy focus on the man under the suit. Steve’s fabric and his relationships drive our story and the action is the byproduct. Tonally it’s very serious. You want to make sure the characters go up against things that feel like real threats and [put] them into interesting situations. It’s a lot less of the connection with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the spy work and more big high adventure super hero stuff with sci-fi that I tend to lean into. It’s obviously a big challenge following a beloved run like Ed’s. I guess that’s what was also appealing because it was a challenge; it wasn’t safe. You’re working with new people.”
Uncanny Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
Remender is also writing the flagship Marvel NOW! relaunch book Uncanny Avengers and says expect a crossover.
“There will be a lot of new characters cross pollinating [between the two books]. The first 10 issues of each are going to be their own thing—you want to get that train out of the station and really solidify what the books are about and what’s going on in them. Then we’ll start to see characters from one pop up in the other and a little more cross pollination. I spent some time on the phone with Jason Aaron about how to incorporate some of his new THOR: GOD OF THUNDER ideas in UNCANNY AVENGERS as well, and I want to do the same with Jonathan Hickman and I know Kieron Gillen and I will talk, too. We’ll try and do our very best to make it cohesive and not like it’s a bold new direction where everyone is doing their own thing. We want it to feel like a bold new direction where everyone is doing their own thing and swapping toys out, trying to build something that feels cohesive because that’s such an important part of the shared universe experience.”
Remender tells IFanboy that part of the sci-fi focus will be bringing back Arnim Zola and sending Cap to Dimension Z?
“One of the mandates I have to myself is, I don’t want to touch the World War II stuff. I think that that has been done, now, and it’s been done perfectly. To go back and to keep focusing on Cap in World War II at this point, again, would be following too closely to what Ed has already done. What I’m doing is spending a lot of time in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s, showing Steve grow up. The first arc is 10 issues, and it’s called “Dimension Z.”
I don’t want to give away too much, but a big portion of it is Cap dealing with Arnim Zola in Dimension Z. I’m trying to take Zola and do with him, what we did with Apocalypse over in Uncanny X-Force. Where we take what’s there, re-imagine it, build a new mythology and really expand Zola, and try and build Zola into a very, very big and important character.
The other half of it is going to be a lot of flashbacks to a young Steve Rogers growing up in Depression-era Lower East Side, and getting to know his family and his friends, and how this 98-pound weakling became such a tenacious, strong person; focus on the fiber and the integrity of who he is, and really develop that for the first time.”
Op/Ed: Brubaker’s run is beloved. The Winter Soldier is what got me buying Cap again. The writer taking on Cap probably has the biggest challenge in the Marvel NOW! relaunch. Remender is one of the most ambitious and fearless writers out there (Hello –Dark Angel Saga) so I’m excited to see where he’ll take Steve.
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Marvel’s The Avengers director Joss Whedon will be back to write and direct the sequel and develop a new Marvel Universe themed, live-action television series for ABC according to Variety.
No word on which characters will appear in the television series. I’m betting on the agents of SHIELD. Disney/ABC is already developing a Hulk series with Giullermo Del Toro.
Captain America is going into darker territory in his sequel but Marvel films picked two directors known for comedy to take the Star Spangled Avenger there. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is based on Ed Brubaker’s gritty epic in which Steve Rogers faces a mysterious Russian assassin and a ghost from his past.
Anthony and Joe Russo (Community, Arrested Development) are writing, producing and directing the Cap sequel and gave a preview of what to expect in the modern-day set sequel based on the Brubaker storyline.
Chris Evans as Captain America in Marvel’s The Avengers courtesy Marvel Films
“Well, we like the [story]. I can’t talk too much about specifics, that’s the way Marvel handles things. I can say in general that there’s sort of a darker, edgier sensibility at work there that we found appealing, and that is going find its way into Captain [America] in the modern-day,” Russo tells Huffington Post.
Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger was an homage to World War II films so how will the tone change in the new film set in the present day.
“I have to be very careful how I answer this, because it does border on issues of what the movie is. But yeah, he is in a very different time and place. For as well as that style worked for his World War 2 experience and the origin of Cap — part of the fun of picking a guy out of one time period and plopping him down in another is that all bets are off. The whole world is different, and that’s part of the struggle of the character and the challenge the character faces,” Russo explains.
Black Widow and The Winter Soldier from the cover of Captain America and Bucky #624 courtesy Marvel.com
In the modern age Cap falls for SHIELD Agent Sharon Carter (niece of Peggy Carter from the first film.) No word on if Sharon will appear but Anthony Mackie is in talks to play Cap’s partner, Sam Wilson aka the Falcon. Sebastian Stan is set to return as Bucky Barnes.
Will Hugo Weaving return as the Red Skull? How will the Russos explain the archenemy’s return. I do have this geek casting dream Christoph Waltz as Aleksander Lukin, the KGB mastermind who becomes a billionaire with a twisted connection to the Red Skull. Could we see a Black Widow cameo or even as major cast member since Natasha was crucial to Brubaker’s storyline and is currently co-starring in the Winter Soldier book.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com
The U.S. Military often works with blockbuster movies by having the latest vehicles appear on the big screen with the stars. The Pentagon quit working with Marvel’s The Avengers. Why? The Defense Department thought one element of the story was too unrealistic. Was it the Norse Gods, alien armada or the Hulk? It was the film’s treatment of military bureaucracy according to a new story in Wired.com.
SHIELD is an international peacekeeping force led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson.) The organization doesn’t have a direct relationship with the United States – its more of a global agency. In the film, Fury reports to a Council which appears to be made up of members from various nations. That ambiguity is what made the U.S. Military not participate.
Cobie Smulders in The Avengers courtesy Marvel Films
“We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it,” Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, tells Danger Room. “To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything” with the film.
The film is a good recruiting movie for SHIELD if you can fit in the suits! Here’s hoping a SHIELD movie with Jackson, Cobie Smulders and new agents might happen.
Cobie Smulders in The Avengers courtesy Marvel Films
Cobie Smulders brings SHIELD operative Maria Hill to the big screen in Marvel’s The Avengers. Hill was created during the Brian Michael Bendis Avengers run and went up against Nick Fury and Tony Stark. Smulders joins Clark Gregg who’s played Agent Phil Coulson in Iron Man and Thor. The Marvel comic book version of Coulson made his debut in Shattered Heroes – along with an African-American Nick Fury (Jr.)
Scarlet Spider #5 courtesy Marvel.com
Gregg tells The Hollywood Reporter Heat Vision the Marvel movies make a strong effort to be respectful of the comic book source and that resource was on set as he built his character.
“The fanboys and girls are very interested in [mythology] like, ‘that goes directly against what goes in the comic’,” Gregg said. “And they can’t do that with me. I feel like these movies are designed to respect those comics, so I always made a point of checking out what there was about S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“The great thing is that the Marvel guys are there and you say, ‘I need a little more background on Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ and the next day they hand you this thing that any fanboy would die for, kind of an encyclopedia illustrated about the history of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
courtesy Marvel.com
Smulders says Joss Whedon helped her translate an iconic character.
“Joss Whedon, he is really hands-on and he wants every character to have a life on and off-screen,” Smulders said. “He is really involved in making sure that every person has their moments. And I really felt like a part of a team – I really felt linked to Coulson and to Fury and especially our role in the film.”
For the entire interview and a video here’s the Heat Vision link.
By Editor
Here’s hoping we might see a SHIELD/Nick Fury movie – here are my thoughts on Marvel stories that would translate to the big screen.
Movie fans know Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) as SHIELD operatives from previous Marvel films and the upcoming Avengers movie.
Now Fury (Jr) and Coulson are in the Marvel Universe after Battle Scars #5 and now a terrorist threat will send the SHIELD agents into action in Scarlet Spider #5 on May 9th.
“There’s a dirty nuke loose in Houston, and everybody from the Houston PD, the F.B.I., S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers get pulled in,” Battle Scars and Scarlet Spider writer Christopher Yost tells Marvel.com. “Fury and Coulson are the face of S.H.I.E.L.D. in this case, and Coulson actually runs point with Iron Man, Scarlet Spider’s the one on the ground.”
“In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Coulson somewhat became the face of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” adds Yost. “So when S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up in the comics, Fury and Coulson can now serve that function.
“Fury’s not the director, not the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.—he’s an agent. He and Coulson aren’t going to be sitting in meetings; they’re going to be out there on big S.H.I.E.L.D. adventures.”
