Perhaps excited by the prospect of a second critically praised but underperforming show from one of their corporate synergy brands, ABC is looking to double-dip into the world of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network and Marvel are working to develop a spinoff to their hourly exercise in good-looking people punching other good-looking people, with occasional special effects to make it look like someone’s levitating stuff or whatever.
The potential series is being created by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer Paul Zbyszewski and executive producer Jeffrey Bell. There are no plans to introduce the show via a backdoor pilot aired as an episode of the original series, a la Criminal Minds and Chicago Fire’s strategy for launching new installments of their respective franchises. (Let’s not even discuss the disaster that was Supernatural’s backdoor pilot episode.) Instead, the show is being developed with an eye toward launching it for fall or midseason, though that depends in part on how the rest of ABC’s pilot season goes. More importantly, it ignores the fact that Agent Carter is sitting there patiently, waiting for the rest of the world to watch it months later via streaming and realize, probably long after it’s not picked up, how good that show was.
As with all things Marvel, details are being kept quiet, but supposedly plot developments in the back half of this season will suggest the premise for the new show. By that reading, smart money would be on a new S.H.I.E.L.D. team led by Edward James Olmos’ Robert Gonzalez, possibly with Bobbi (Adrienne Palicki) and Mack (Henry Simmons) on board, now that they’ve more or less burned their bridges with the regular team. Or it could all just be a waiting game until the Hulk shows up, kills everyone, and gets his own spinoff. That’s an option as well.