S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson is about to have a very bad day.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, released in theaters over the weekend, reveals that the secret government agency has been infiltrated to its core by sleeper agents of Hydra, an evil organization bent on world domination.
And in a bit of movie-to-TV synergy, the film's events will prompt a major retooling of ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for its first season's final six new episodes, beginning Tuesday (8 ET/PT).
"It's an extremely unique experience that doesn't exist anywhere else out there in the entertainment business," says Jeph Loeb, executive producer and head of Marvel TV.
The show's group of agents led by Coulson (Clark Gregg), introduced in the Marvel movies, are faced with not only trust issues among themselves but a civil war within the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. organization, where no one knows who's actually a Hydra operative.
Upcoming episodes feature at least one major betrayal, and what's left of Coulson's team is forced to deal on their own with the dismantling of their whole world as well as the new Hydra threat.
"Survival is a huge part of it," says executive producer Maurissa Tancharoen. "There is no more tapping into big S.H.I.E.L.D. through the holo-comm. The guns you have on the plane are the guns you have. They're basically left with the bare minimum."
Coulson's team — agents May (Ming-Na Wen), Ward (Brett Dalton), Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Skye (Chloe Bennet) — were established as new characters in Marvel lore finding their identity in "the most massive organization ever created by man," adds executive producer Jed Whedon. "Now they really are a ragtag bunch scraping things together."
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has had bigger problems than Hydra its first season. Viewership has been disappointing — it premiered in September with an impressive 12 million viewers, but ranked behind The Voice and NCIS with 5.71 million last week, though it is expected to return next fall.
And the hardcore fanboy contingent has decried its lack of characters from the comics, though that will be addressed with the Hydra element, which the show couldn't mention until now in order to avoid spoiling Winter Soldier, Whedon says. Instead, the series spent time building external threats -- the big bad mystery man the Clairvoyant, the mad scientists of Centipede, the cyborg operative Deathlok (J. August Richards) -- for the heroes to deal with that would then connect back to Hydra later.
"Hopefully people who've had mixed feelings about the show will now understand it was all part of a big plan," Tancharoen says.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, released in theaters over the weekend, reveals that the secret government agency has been infiltrated to its core by sleeper agents of Hydra, an evil organization bent on world domination.
And in a bit of movie-to-TV synergy, the film's events will prompt a major retooling of ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for its first season's final six new episodes, beginning Tuesday (8 ET/PT).
"It's an extremely unique experience that doesn't exist anywhere else out there in the entertainment business," says Jeph Loeb, executive producer and head of Marvel TV.
The show's group of agents led by Coulson (Clark Gregg), introduced in the Marvel movies, are faced with not only trust issues among themselves but a civil war within the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. organization, where no one knows who's actually a Hydra operative.
Upcoming episodes feature at least one major betrayal, and what's left of Coulson's team is forced to deal on their own with the dismantling of their whole world as well as the new Hydra threat.
"Survival is a huge part of it," says executive producer Maurissa Tancharoen. "There is no more tapping into big S.H.I.E.L.D. through the holo-comm. The guns you have on the plane are the guns you have. They're basically left with the bare minimum."
Coulson's team — agents May (Ming-Na Wen), Ward (Brett Dalton), Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Skye (Chloe Bennet) — were established as new characters in Marvel lore finding their identity in "the most massive organization ever created by man," adds executive producer Jed Whedon. "Now they really are a ragtag bunch scraping things together."
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has had bigger problems than Hydra its first season. Viewership has been disappointing — it premiered in September with an impressive 12 million viewers, but ranked behind The Voice and NCIS with 5.71 million last week, though it is expected to return next fall.
And the hardcore fanboy contingent has decried its lack of characters from the comics, though that will be addressed with the Hydra element, which the show couldn't mention until now in order to avoid spoiling Winter Soldier, Whedon says. Instead, the series spent time building external threats -- the big bad mystery man the Clairvoyant, the mad scientists of Centipede, the cyborg operative Deathlok (J. August Richards) -- for the heroes to deal with that would then connect back to Hydra later.
"Hopefully people who've had mixed feelings about the show will now understand it was all part of a big plan," Tancharoen says.
Source:
I wonder who the major betrayal is.
ReplyDeleteCould they be one of the 'Number of onscreen firings/resignations/major job changes' from the May Sweeps Scorecard perhaps?
I just hope Marvel realises that IF they want to make a tie-in series they need to give them full permission to do so, let them use more characters, adress events/organizations/people properly. Hydra bringing down SHIELD could've been handled as significant, if not better, on a multi episode AoS arc (I hope this is done properly).
ReplyDeleteHaving Hill added to AoS as a regular and maybe have Bucky appear would certainly help boost the ratings
Love it and I feel a little bit smug because I knew early on something major was going to happen and got annoyed at everyone who complained that it was too procedural or had no connection the the wider MCU. It clearly was building to something and even if Joss involvement is minimal his shows always lean towards misfits rather than by the books company men.
ReplyDeleteI doubt we'll get Bucky in AoS if the rumors of his future storyline turn out to be true.
ReplyDeleteIf and when it gets picked up for a season 2 I imagine it will have more of a free hand in story development as it wont have to respond to the events of the cinematic world until Age of ultron in 2015.
ReplyDeleteI cant see Guardians of the Galaxy having any impact on the show unless they pop up on earth at some point in the film.
what rumors ?
ReplyDeleteI remember you telling me you were in the same boat I was xD
ReplyDeleteOnce they revealed Deathlok I thought people would see how intertwined the story was (as opposed to "filler episodes" [I hate people calling stuff filler because it's not obviously connected to the main storyline of the season])
Do you think centipede will be revealed as part of HYDRA?
Look up the Winter Soldier in the comics, he takes on another name for a while...
ReplyDeleteSPOILERS HERE SPOILERS HERE
ReplyDeleteChris Evans (Captain America) is only signed on to 2 more movies and then wants to take a break from acting. Avengers 2 and Captain America 3. Considering they introduced Bucky, Rumlow (Crossbones) and referenced Sharon Carter it looks like they're delving into the Death of Captain America story.
Furthering the theory is the fact that Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier/Bucky) signed up for a 9 picture deal. If they follow the comics then Bucky will take up the title of Captain America.
SPOILERS HERE SPOILERS HERE
I think some people just wanted to dislike the show from the start which is a shame but I hope people come around and see just everything truly is connected.
ReplyDeleteI think centipede could be Hydra, I wondered if they were AIM for a while but Hydra makes sense now we know whats been happening in SHIELD.
Yeah the show has a real chance of exploring the effects of SHIELD collapsing. The only connection I imagine Guardians having is with whatever the alien Coulson found is but other than that it seems pretty separate.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to suspect who's the one betraying them (the one who's missing on promos, trailers...)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about Evans break :o
ReplyDeleteDarn...well...I'll go with it, Stan is good as well
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/chris-evans-break-from-acting-marvel_n_4895630.html
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for this show to prove all the naysayers wrong! Last week's episode was terrific and we're clearly entering a very exciting chapter. Also, I'm sick of hearing how "AoS should learn from Arrow". Just because Arrow puts in more elements from its own comic universe doesn't necessarily make it better. I love Arrow, don't get me wrong, but it's become overrated, especially with people constantly using it to put AoS down.
ReplyDeleteI think centipede might be connected with HAMMER. Especially with some of the characters in play.
ReplyDeleteThe show definitely needed a major retooling.
ReplyDeleteOnly have the Bus and the people on it to rely on...that might have meant something if the Team wasn't heavily self reliant and never utilized the rest of Shield from the beginning of the season.
ReplyDeleteWho?
ReplyDeleteWhat I really want to know is: IS THE TRAITOR ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BUS 6? (Coulson, May, Ward, Skye, Fitz and Simmons)
ReplyDeleteOr can the traitor be someone else? I can't think of anyone in the original 6 being the traitor (especially on a big network tv show), but I totally could see Agent Garret or Agent Hand being the traitors.
This is not a spoiler, but pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteI think it's Ward. You can't see him in the picture at the link or next week promo.
Yeah, I had been thinking about that too, but since it is newtork tv, I though they'd go the more obvious route and use some of the newly introduced characters who have a long history with the core 6, aka Agent Garret maybe.
ReplyDeleteI just started suspecting less of Ward when they started to show him interested in Skye, because I though network tv wouldn piss off all the shippers and separate Skye and Ward.
Anyway, if it is well written, I am all up for it.
Ward is in the promo for this week's new episode. When the big blast occurs in the trailer, he is the one covering Skye behind the wall. I paused it, and it's definitely them. Also, they wouldn't make it him since that would be too obvious after he quickly killed the bad guy recently. And it's not Skye, either. That only leaves FitzSimmons, in my opinion. It can't be May, also too obvious. It could be someone else, though. Also, Chloe who plays Skye said in a recent interview that she believes that SkyeWard are soulmates. So I can't see either of them being a traitor if that's the case. I don't want it to be FitzSimmons, either. I hope it's someone else entirely and not one of the main leads.
ReplyDeleteOh, man, I saw someone earlier say that Arrow is the best comic book property across all of the mediums. I love the show too but at this point people hype it up so much any new viewer is going to go, "This is it?".
ReplyDeleteI think there are 2 HYDRA agents: Ward and Simmons.
ReplyDeleteA) Garrett mentioned that Ward was 'different' since joining the group. Could he be a relatively new HYDRA agent?
B) Simmons and Fitz were talking at the Science SHIELD academy about HYDRA and AIM being organisations that recruited essentially the same science types that SHIELD did. Precursor?
I also hope that if they expose one, they dont neccesarily expose the other.
Who funds the Bus? Thats the issue. If SHIELD no longer exists in any form, then they need a new financial backer. Or is SHIELD 'bought' out ie.. does it become more of a private organisation. It could be funded by any number of backers.. Stark Industries being one example. (and in that way you could have Maria Hill perhaps be the liason to the team from Stark providing them limited funding or full funding.. but obviously them doing jobs for Stark)
ReplyDeleteThey also didn't mention this. Bam! Bow chicka wow wow yo! #spoileralert #skyeward
ReplyDeleteUghhh not looking forward to this :/
ReplyDelete"and these are well liked characters"
ReplyDeleteReally? Some of the major criticism I've seen of the show is that some people still don't very much like the main characters. Now I LOVE these characters, but I think some people would get a real kick out of one of them being the spy, because it raises the stakes and changes the entire dynamic of the core 6. That could make for great and compelling television.
They really should rename AoS to Agents of Nothing! That suits team airbus, after the events of Cap 2.
ReplyDeleteIf it's one of the core 6, I hope they turn out to be misguided or have some other good reason to do what they do, like May reporting directly to Fury. The family dynamic of these characters and how they've grown to care about each other has been the main pull of the show to me, and kept me coming back when the plot took time to develop. It's a delight now to watch almost any pair of characters from the team interact and see how its relationship has developed since the Pilot. If they go against the network TV formula and make one of them a traitor to then write them off the series, sure, it would be surprising but also largely disappointing. You don't spend so long getting the audience invested in characters and relationships just to throw them down the drain.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, if AoS were to learn from Arrow, all the women on this show would have to the ex-girlfriends/current girlfriends/one-night-stands of Ward (who would be training shirtless and flexing his muscles half of the time) or have such a crush on him that they spend more time making puppy eyes at the guy than doing their job. The Arrow writers should be the ones watching AoS for pointers on gender, at least.
ReplyDeleteIt seems people think that it only matters how much comic canon stuff you put into the show. So they consider Arrow awesome because of the avalanche of DC characters/organizations on the show this season (even though it's so crowded that the actual main characters of the show are often an afterthought), while dissing AoS because it took a while to connect to the Marvel universe.
Hill and Stark working together to rebuild SHIELD or at least carry on its mission could be leading to a Civil War type story.
ReplyDeleteMurder: If we view it more from a movie show version, now that Stark has hung up his suits for the time being (and got his heart fixed), then he might think buying out what is left of Shield (taking it private) as his new 'face' to the public might be the way to go.
ReplyDeleteActually, Season 1 Arrow was pretty good and it had barely any DC universe links to it. I got into it because of the pacing, Manu Bennett and the fight choreography . Bam Bam Bamford and his guys really are the best drilled stunt team around
ReplyDeleteIts a Joss Whedon show on Network TV. So ones assumptions about how things will pan out can be slightly turned on their head. If it is Ward i honestly hope they dont reveal him. Hydra arnt finished because Shield exposed them, Hydra were 'destroyed' before and they got stronger. Id like there to be a Hydra element present for the rest of the series.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know it's the Whedonverse, but I still think it is not Ward.
ReplyDeleteI'd love this kind of storyline even though I like the characters, but I enjoy the unexpected. That aside, I don't think the traitor will be one of the core 6.
ReplyDeleteI love them all, but I'd appreciate a well written twist, just as I enjoyed the "affair" between May and Ward and I am not really into the whole Skye Ward. I got more a brother sister vibe off of them and I thought it was too obvious (while May/Ward wasn't)... even if I were Ok with the whole Skye/Ward situation, it is waaaay too soon.
Where did you get this? It is too soon IMO.
ReplyDeleteLOL, I guest I was right :P
ReplyDeleteI wasn't in that snow picture at the article, so I guessed it right :P