One thing I'm hoping for is it ties into the marvel universe. One interesting thing would be to start this... a YEAR before THE AVENGERS or at least a couple months. Why?
Well, we can see the events we knew about the film before it occurs! For instance, the pilot episode could deal with agent coulson being hired to keep an eye on tony stark - as we saw in the IRON MAN film. Have SHIELD's intro be the same as it was in the film series! Then everything continues from there! If possible include cameos by black widow and hawkeye to bridge those gaps as well!
Don't be afraid to incorporate the films as much as possible!
The first season would be a look inside what happened leading up the AVENGERS. Second Season would be a look at what happened leading up to IRON MAN 3, doing it's own thing AND setting some bridges to CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 and THOR 2. Next season would be leading to other films and continuing where we left of. Next season a bigger build-up to AVENGERS 2.
Basically we are seeing behind the scenes! Introduce other problems into it as well. For example, this would be the perfect vehicle for re-introducing nazis and the return of the red skull for a captain america film. Why? HYDRA is one of SHIELD's enemies!
This will entice audiences more. What was going on behind those films? How did everything lead up to the Avengers? Have Nick Fury cameos at times. Famous actors do cameos for tv shows all the time, why wouldn't sam jackson be interested? There is plenty of drama between them leading to Causon's death.
There already is a first season introduction sensibility from it PLUS the inevitable dark season 2 due to Caulson's death. Advertise it as "the story behind the story." This draws in film fans, allows newcomers to have a jump start base and alligns it with the series.
Dude, are you reading what I'm typing?
I read what you're typing. Every word. You start out saying that the show should be the story behind the story, by the time the point has been made that it limits the show five times, your tune is more moderate, that only *some* episodes should be this way, even to the point of accusing people who understood your initial point of poor reading comprehension.
1) I didn't say not have it build it's own mythology. I'm saying have it play out separately. Yet also have these guys in the heat of the action which will inevitably go back to the key conflicts at hand or at least referencing of them. I don't know, I'd feel it was very odd if there was no office talk about what's going on with another big case at the moment (which we would not be allowed to have if it spoiled things in a film). Note - I'm not saying showing small things. I'm saying having it have a "world" background. If Mandarin destroys New York City, and SHIELD says nothing about it -- I don't know... I'd find that as false as the FBI not talking about major recent terrorist attacks.
2) I am saying give it it's own mythology. Hell, I want the first season to show us how SHIELD started to rise in power. Why Nick Fury thought it was ESSENTIAL to bring all these heroes together. Are there other super heroes? Are there other super villains? There may have been due to Tony Stark asking the people if they thought he fought crime in IRON MAN. Or at least it hints to some "LARGER UNIVERSE" that Nick Fury knew about BEFORE Thor and Captain America came into the picture. What is this bigger universe he was dealing with?
3) I am saying have SOME - read... ca-re-fu-lly - episodes SHOULD focus around SHIELD participating with these heroes. AVENGERS is the key operation. You kill two birds with one stone, you show what's going on in those heroes lives (pasts), as well as how SHIELD was involved. It builds upon the audience and entices more viewers while not being restricted by future films. This isn't "little things" these would be the BIG things we never saw or knew were going on. How is Black Widow and Hawkeyes' mission in Buddapest a "old" story?... confused...
4) If it happens at the same time... as said... you are COMPLETELY getting rid of office talk about the key group or task force in the present tense which would start to seem very odd after a while due to restrictions. And you are bound to wind up with a show with characters that can not be in AVENGERS 2 which will also serve as SHIELD: THE MOVIE for fans of the series and not the films bringing an even larger audience into the fold.
Basically making these two conflict? You wind up with Adam in Season 4 of Smallville (who was originally supposed to be Bruce Wayne).
What really amazes me about your take is that you believe this will entice 'audiences.' That these two birds are what audiences are interested in, the heroes pasts and how SHIELD was involved with their lives is only potentially interesting to people who have seen the films and aren't satisfied with the stories told and want more detail on those same stories. That generally consists of hardcore fans. This is why this kind of fill-in-the-past storyline is usually only seen in fanfiction, because those are the only people who care about those minor details. Lion King 1 and Half wasn't very popular for a reason. A cute little idea that doesn't hold up for more than ten minutes at a time. Look how comprehensively the fallout from Hulk, Thor and Avengers were covered by three little 10-minute Marvel One-Shots. One shots that do exactly what you prescribe but were only of interest to hardcore fans, the didn't entice millions of new viewers, because only hardcore fans care.
So, no, you're not enticing audiences. You're enticing fanboys that will see the show anyway and pushing away general audiences who simply liked (not loved and want the story behind the story) the movies and who didn't see the movies.
The other idea is that setting between previous movies is freedom and open, but setting it in the "present" is limiting. It's the opposite. With a show set before Avengers, you can't do any superheroes, since we know Fury pulled out all the stops and pulled in people who weren't qualified to be Avengers (like Stark), you also can't do anything major like mutant attacks or some movie-level big bad that would have been mentioned by others at some point. You can't chase or lose Banner, because we know via Black Widow that they never lost Banner. In short, you can't expand the universe because Avengers makes it very cleary what the size of the universe is.
On the contrary, if the show is set after Avengers, you can do major things like have mutant attacks and meet superheroes/future superheroes. You can still have flashbacks and "Office Talk" about Budapest anything that's extremely interesting and helps the story move forward, but there's always room to do big things, and explore the fallout from these films, rather than constantly be undercover and not able to have big consequences because they won't jibe with the films which clearly show these people as the only superheroes available.
Other films getting in the way isn't a concern. The show starts after IM3 comes out, and will be aware of those plot points so it won't conflict there. Guardians of the Galaxy is off planet and Ant-Man may not even be in continuity. That leaves Cap 2 and Avengers 2. Avengers 2 is written by one of the writers/executive producers of the SHIELD show, so there's no chance of conflict there. That leaves Cap 2 as the only possible thing that could cause any problem. As its all MCU, they'll have access to the Cap 2 script and a full year in order to make sure the story lines up. That's a very small limit, as opposed to making a TV show that makes you wonder "Why didn't Fury get any of those mutants to help with the fight against Loki?"
Now one point you bring up well is that Fury did originally ask "Did you think you were the only superhero?" But upon further investigation, the events of The Incredible Hulk had already happened by that point. That's why Fury had so many superheroes on the map already by the end of Iron Man 2, they had already happened, or SHIELD was already aware of them.
So, we've dealt with the fact that it's not more enticing to casual fans and newbies, that it doesn't make more freedom, but less... can we just admit what this is really about?
We want to see a show about Agent Phil Coulson. It's fair, he's a great character, but he's gone. Clark Gregg is okay with it. Leave him be. Let him have some flashbacks or what have, but build something new, it's own mythology.
Also, while it's fun to talk about how we would do things. The plain fact is, that SHIELD will be its own story, not dependent on the Avengers or its popularity (but simply bolstered by such popularity, as again, those people will naturally watch the show anyway, the goal is to get new people into it).
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.c...d-tv-series-will-be-autonomous-from-avengers/
