Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | |
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File:Agents of SHIELD logo.jpg | |
Genre | |
Created by | |
Based on | S.H.I.E.L.D. by Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
Starring | |
Composer | Bear McCreary[1] |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 5 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | Garry A. Brown |
Cinematography | David Boyd |
Editor | Paul Trejo |
Running time | 43 minutes |
Production companies | ABC Studios Marvel Television Mutant Enemy[2] |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | September 24, 2013 present | –
Related | |
Marvel Cinematic Universe (film franchise) |
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or simply Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is an American television series created for ABC by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). The series is produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Mutant Enemy[2] and is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sharing continuity with the films in that franchise. It revolves around the character of Phil Coulson, with Clark Gregg reprising the role.
A pilot, written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, and directed by Joss Whedon, was given the green light in late 2012 and filmed in early 2013. The series was officially ordered on May 10, 2013[4] and premiered on September 24, 2013.[5] On October 10, 2013, ABC picked it up for a full season of 22 episodes.[6]
Agent Phil Coulson puts together a small team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to handle strange new cases.[7] Each case will test the team in cooperation and ingenuity as they try to work together figuring out newly emerging superhuman individuals in the world with some of their cases involving the mysterious Project Centipede and their use of Extremis.
J. August Richards plays Mike Peterson in the pilot, an ordinary man who gains extraordinary powers.[3] Cobie Smulders reprises her role as Maria Hill in the pilot after her appearance in The Avengers. Joss Whedon stated: "I wanted very much to have Cobie in the pilot because as much as anyone else, she is S.H.I.E.L.D. She's cool and commanding, and has the dry humor that plays so well with Clark's."[19] In the second episode, Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury.
Firefly and Serenity actor Ron Glass also appears in the pilot as Dr. Streiten.[3][20] David Conrad and Ruth Negga have been cast as Ian Quinn and Raina, respectively.[21][22][23][24] Ian Hart has been cast as Dr. Franklin Hall.[22][25] Titus Welliver will reprise his role as Agent Blake from the Marvel One-Shot short film Item 47 in the episode "FZZT".[26] Maximiliano Hernández will reprise his role as Agent Jasper Sitwell in the episode "The Hub".[27] Saffron Burrows will be appearing in an episode as Victoria Hand.[28]
After The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009,[29] they announced that a Marvel Television division was being formed.[30][31] In the following months, various pilots based on comics from Marvel's catalog went into development.[32][33]
In July 2012, Marvel Television entered into discussions with ABC to do a new show set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though at that point it was undecided what the show would be. It was described as "'a kernel of an idea' with a number of scenarios being explored, including a high-concept cop show."[34] In August 2012 it was announced that Marvel's The Avengers director Joss Whedon, creator of cult hit shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, would be involved in the show's development.[35] A few weeks later ABC ordered a pilot for a show called S.H.I.E.L.D.; the pilot was to be written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, directed by Joss Whedon, and executive produced by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Tancharoen, Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb, with Jed Whedon, Tancharoen and Bell slated to serve as the series' showrunners.[36][37] According to Entertainment Weekly, Disney CEO Bob Iger greenlit the S.H.I.E.L.D. series after the watching the Marvel One-Shot short film Item 47, about S.H.I.E.L.D. agents pursuing a couple in possession of a Chitauri weapon used in the Battle of New York in The Avengers.[38] Joss Whedon stated that the show would be autonomous from The Avengers, saying "It’s gotta be a show that works for people who haven’t seen the Marvel movies. It will please Marvel fans, I think."[39] In a September 2012 interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, Whedon reiterated that sentiment, going on to say "It's new characters. It needs to be its own thing. It needs to be adjacent [to The Avengers]... What does S.H.I.E.L.D. have that the other superheroes don't? And that, to me, is that they're not superheroes, but they live in that universe. Even though they're a big organization, that [lack of powers] makes them underdogs, and that's interesting to me."[40] Whedon deflected any direct influences from other series, such as the efforts of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in The X-Files, and explained that while the show would involve people with powers and the spectacle of science-fiction storytelling, it would focus on "the peripheral people ... the people on the edges of the grand adventures."[41]
In January 2013, ABC president Paul Lee said that the story takes place after the events of The Avengers.[42] Filming of the pilot episode began on January 22, 2013 and concluded on February 11, 2013.[41][43] On April 6, 2013 ABC announced that the show would be titled Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[7] On May 10, 2013, ABC announced that it had officially picked up the series.[4]
In a June 2013 interview, Clark Gregg explained how the TV series would tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe films: "...the exciting part is going to be seeing the way that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. interacts with the S.H.I.E.L.D. component in Captain America 2, and the other movies, and whether those movies will then affect our show."[44] Jed Whedon said the TV series will work in tandem with the Marvel films, both past and upcoming. “We plan on trying to weave in between the films and try to make them more rewarding on both ends,” said Whedon.[45]
In July 2013, Maurissa Tancharoen revealed on her Twitter page that Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Jeff Bell, Paul Zbyszewski, Monica Breen, Brent Fletcher, Lauren LeFranc, Rafe Judkins and Shalisha Francis would be the writers for the series.[46] Additionally, composer Bear McCreary confirmed that he would compose music for the series.[1] On July 19, 2013, at San Diego Comic-Con International, the entire pilot was screened.[47]
On October 10, 2013, ABC announced it ordered a full season of 22 episodes. The series ranks as the No. 1 series of the 2013–14 season among adults 18–49.[6] On October 12, 2013, Marvel screened "Eye Spy" at New York Comic Con.[48]
In October 2012, a casting sheet for five lead roles was sent out.[13] Later that month, at the New York Comic Con, Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige and Clark Gregg announced that Gregg would be reprising his role as agent Phil Coulson in the series' pilot,[8] and would "headline" the series.[9] Toward the end of the month, actress Ming-Na Wen was cast as agent Melinda May.[12] In November 2012, Elizabeth Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker were cast as agents Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz, respectively.[18] Later in November, newcomer Brett Dalton was cast as agent Grant Ward.[15] In December 2012, Chloe Bennet was cast as Skye, the sixth and final series regular.[16] In January 2013, Cobie Smulders, who played agent Maria Hill in The Avengers, said that her character may make an appearance in the show and that her commitment to How I Met Your Mother would not prevent her from participating.[49] In April 2013, J. August Richards, one of the stars of Whedon's 1999 series Angel, was also cast in the pilot in an unspecified role.[50] When asked if Richards' role would be one familiar to the comics, executive producer Jeffrey Bell said, "You know, not necessarily. I mean, we’re going to draw from [the comics], but Marvel has its thing, and we’re also going to be expanding forward, and this world is different since The Avengers. So I think there will be people showing up, some from the Marvel Universe and some not."[51] Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Nicholas Brendon, another Whedon collaborator, was also reportedly considered for Richards' role.[52] Richards' role was later revealed to be Mike Peterson.[3] In June 2013, Samuel L. Jackson expressed interest in guest starring as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury.[53] He has subsequently first appeared in the episode, "0-8-4".
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot" | Joss Whedon | Joss Whedon & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen | September 24, 2013 | 12.12[54] | |
Set after the events of The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson (who survived his apparent death) assembles a small team of agents to investigate a superhuman, Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), who is able to survive an exploding building, and a hacktivist group called the Rising Tide that seems to have information. Skye, a member of the Rising Tide, meets with Peterson to warn him about S.H.I.E.L.D., saying that they cover up superhero based events and that she can help him, which he declines. Later, Skye is abducted by Coulson and Ward and questioned on their plane. She does not cooperate initially, but eventually reveals what she knows. It is later revealed that Peterson had been supplied with Extremis technology, giving him his powers, by an unknown organization that is behind Project Centipede. After visiting the explosion scene, Coulson's team is able to recreate it and learn that it was caused by another subject exploding due to Extremis. While attempting to get info to the team, Skye is kidnapped by Peterson (who is now on the run) and makes her give him a clean slate. Coulson's team is able to track them down and are able to subdue Peterson without him causing mass damage while stopping an assassin that was sent by Dr. Debbie. With Peterson in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Coulson offers Skye a place on the team. | ||||||
2 | "0-8-4" | David Straiton | Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon & Jeffrey Bell | October 1, 2013 | 8.66[55] | |
Skye is now integrated into Coulson's team as a consultant. Their next assignment is in Peru, tracking a "0-8-4", a S.H.I.E.L.D. prefix for "an object of unknown origin". Once there, the team quickly realizes that the object is actually a piece of forgotten HYDRA technology powered by Tesseract energy. Coulson meets with a former ally, Camilla Reyes (Leonor Varela) and brings her onboard the team plane. Later, Reyes betrays Coulson and plans to take the HYDRA weapon for herself so she can destroy the Peruvian rebels. The squabbling team members band together, utilizing each of their talents, and save the day. Skye receives a text message from another member of the Rising Tide and confirms her allegiance to them. In the final scene, Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) scolds Coulson for the damage to the plane and reminds him about the risk Skye poses. | ||||||
3 | "The Asset" | Milan Cheylov | Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen | October 8, 2013 | 7.87[56] | |
S.H.I.E.L.D. searches for one of its assets, Dr. Franklin Hall (Ian Hart), who was kidnapped by his former research partner Ian Quinn (David Conrad) when his soldiers use a gravity device on the S.H.I.E.L.D. convoy that was transporting him. He wants to use Hall to take control over the planet's gravity by building a giant "gravitonium" generator. Heading to Malta with the team, Skye volunteers to infiltrate Quinn's mansion so that Coulson and Ward can rescue Hall. Skye tricks Quinn into believing she is betraying S.H.I.E.L.D. for Rising Tide to get his guard down. However, Coulson soon discovers that Hall perpetuated his own escape and wants to destroy the massive device. Hall believes he is in the right, but Coulson warns him doing so would end up killing millions. Their violent disagreement leads to Coulson being forced to not save Hall as he falls into the middle of the generator, seemingly vaporizing him. Coulson orders that the gravitonium be placed under high security and off the books. In the final scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. does not notice that Hall may still be alive in the gravitonium. | ||||||
4 | "Eye Spy" | Roxann Dawson | Jeffrey Bell | October 15, 2013 | 7.85[57] | |
There have been a series of thefts throughout the world that are almost impossibly premeditated. Coulson and his team investigates and he uncovers the identity of the thief: his former protégé, Akela Amadour (Pascale Armand). Coulson had presumed her dead and does not believe she is capable of turning on S.H.I.E.L.D., despite May's argument that she is nothing more than a weapon. The team nearly catches up to her, but she manages to evade them. They soon find out she is being blackmailed through a camera in her eye (with X-ray backscatter functions) which has a fail-safe bomb in case she rebels. Coulson takes her to the Bus and hijacks her feed so Ward can take over her new mission while they take out the bomb while the others work to remove the camera from Akela's eye. Coulson catches up to who he thinks is the mastermind behind Akela's thefts, but the man is quickly killed through a similar device to Akela's. Akela is taken away by S.H.I.E.L.D. officers, though Coulson promises her she will have a fair trial. Before she goes, Akela tells May something seems different about Coulson. Afterwards, Fitz is playing poker with Ward and taunts him as they play. What Ward does not realize is that Skye is about to use the glasses he used to simulate Akela's vision to help Fitz cheat, until Skye tells Fitz she will see him without clothes and he leaves. She turns them on anyway to check out Ward. | ||||||
5 | "Girl in the Flower Dress" | Jesse Bochco | Brent Fletcher | October 22, 2013 | 7.39[58] | |
Chan Ho Yin (Louis Ozawa Changchien) is a Hong Kong street magician who dreams of becoming something more. He reveals his secret pyrokinetic ability to Raina (Ruth Negga), the titular "girl in the flower dress", who kidnaps him and then promises him fame in exchange for running a few tests on his powers. Upon being informed of Chan's abduction by his handler S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Quan Chen (Tzi Ma) The S.H.I.E.L.D. team attempts to trace his whereabouts but finds that it was the Rising Tide who leaked the information that lead to his capture and the blame falls to Skye. She protests her innocence and believes she knows another hacker who could have released the info. They head to Austin, Texas where it is revealed that Skye has a relationship with said hacker Miles. They are both led back to the Bus in handcuffs while the team flies to Hong Kong to rescue Chan. Chan discovers his captors that are associated with Project Centipede are injecting him with Extremis which increases the strength of his flame powers and he becomes Scorch. However, Raina turns on Chan and orders his blood platelets to be harvested for further experimentation by Project Centipede. Upon being freed during a S.H.I.E.L.D. raid on the Project Centipede facility, Scorch kills Agent Quan, attacks Coulson and May, and incinerates Dr. Debbie while Raina escapes. They are forced to active the unstable element of Extremis to kill him. Miles is released from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s custody, though placed on probation. Coulson is told by Ward that Skye hacked the mainframe for them and are unsure if they will find the masterminds behind Project Centipede. Skye is later harshly questioned by Coulson and she tearfully reveals that the reason she is with the team and worked for Rising Tide is to find her missing parents who were connected to S.H.I.E.L.D. in some way. Coulson pledges to help her. In the final scene, Raina visits a mysterious man in prison to discuss the outcome of the experiment and asks him to contact the "Clairvoyant". | ||||||
6 | "FZZT"[26] | Vincent Misiano | Paul Zbyszewski | November 5, 2013 | TBA | |
7 | "The Hub"[27][59] | Bobby Roth | Rafe Judkins & Lauren LeFranc | November 12, 2013 | TBA | |
8 | "The Well"[60] | TBA | TBA | November 19, 2013 | TBA |
CTV announced in June 2013 that they hold the broadcast rights for Canada,[61] and the series debuted on September 24, 2013, being simulcast with the American broadcast.[62] On August 22, 2013, it was confirmed that Channel 4 would air the show in the United Kingdom,[63] and it premiered on September 27, 2013.[64] In Australia, the show premiered on Channel 7 on October 2, 2013, with the broadcast of the first two episodes.[65][66]
Before the premiere, the entire pilot was screened at San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2013, and was met with a very positive reaction from the crowd.[47] Critically, the initial screening of the pilot was met with mostly positive reviews. As of September 28, 2013, based on the pilot, the first season has received positive reviews from some critics, and received a Metacritic score of 74 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.[67] IGN gave the pilot an 8.5 out of 10, saying it "quickly hits the right notes to firmly show how it exists on the ground level" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[68] The New York Times' Brooks Barnes felt the storyline in the pilot was hard to follow at times, and did not like the thick accents of De Caestecker and Henstridge. He also added that "what goes over well at Comic-Con does not necessarily work in the real world," especially on a network with "Scandal moms and Dancing With the Stars grandparents."[69]
Entertainment Weekly's initial reactions felt that if everything that made the show appealing—its continuity with Marvel Cinematic Universe, its continuance of the The Avengers storyline, and Whedon's return to television—was stripped from it, the show still worked. However, they also questioned if the show was accessible enough to attract a wider audience.[70] Variety's Brian Lowry felt that the "pilot picks up where 'Avengers' left off, but doesn't pack quite the same punch," adding that the banter "occasionally feels a little precious and clunky".[2]
Jim Steranko, the artist and writer who worked on the "Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." comic books, was critical of the pilot episode, lamenting that "...the show had no menace, no tension."[71] For the second episode, Steranko said that it was "...too unfocused to be satisfying," but praised Jackson's cameo as Nick Fury as "...an electrifying reminder of what the series could and should be."[72]
In the United States, the premiere episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. earned a 4.7/14 rating in the 18-49-year-old demographic, with 12.12 million total viewers,[54] making it the biggest network drama debut in four years.[73] In the United Kingdom, the debut episode was Channel 4's biggest drama launch of the year, averaging 3.1 million viewers, or a share of 14.2 percent of people watching TV in the UK at the time.[74] In Canada, the first episode premiered on CTV to 2.706 million viewers, earning the third highest viewership for the week on the network.[75] The Channel 7 premiere in Australia was watched by 1.3 million viewers, the top show of the night.[66]
As of September 30, 2013, an estimated 22.1 million viewers have watched the premiere episode through live, DVR, encore, and online viewing in the US.[76]
# | Title | Air date | Rating/share (18–49) |
Viewers (millions) |
DVR (18–49) |
DVR viewers (millions) |
Total (18–49) |
Total viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot" | September 24, 2013 | 4.7/14 | 12.12[54] | 2.3 | 4.89 | 7.0 | 17.01[77] |
2 | "0-8-4" | October 1, 2013 | 3.3/10 | 8.66[55] | 1.6 | 3.41 | 4.9 | 12.07[78] |
3 | "The Asset" | October 8, 2013 | 2.9/9 | 7.87[56] | — | — | — | — |
4 | "Eye Spy" | October 15, 2013 | 2.8/8 | 7.85[57] | — | — | — | — |
5 | "Girl in the Flower Dress" | October 22, 2013 | 2.7/8 | 7.39[58] | — | — | — | — |
6 | "FZZT" | November 5, 2013 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Viewing figures are provided by BARB.[79]
# | Title | Air date | Viewers (millions) |
+1 viewers (millions) |
Total viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot" | September 27, 2013 | 3.98 | 0.542 | 4.522 |
2 | "0-8-4" | October 4, 2013 | 3.08 | 0.591 | 3.671 |
3 | "The Asset" | October 11, 2013 | 2.37 | 0.402 | 2.772 |
4 | "Eye Spy" | October 18, 2013 | — | — | — |
5 | "Girl in the Flower Dress" | October 25, 2013 | — | — | — |
6 | "FZZT" | November 5, 2013 | — | — | — |
In June 2013, the series was awarded, along with five other shows, the Critics' Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series.[80]