Joss Whedon Discusses Agent Coulson

Joss Whedon Discusses Agent Coulson
Angie Han - /Film

Well, Whedon isn’t spilling all the details, but he has since clarified one major piece of information. Coulson really and truly is back on the team in S.H.I.E.L.D., though we don’t know how quite yet. Hit the jump to keep reading.

Whedon and Gregg were at SXSW this past weekend promoting their latest project together, Much Ado About Nothing. Whedon first attempted to explain, jokingly, how Coulson might have recovered from his violent end in Loki’s hands. “I’ll tell you guys this. Heimlich,” he quipped. He then got a bit more serious, confirming that Coulson is alive and kicking again “for realsies” although he told the audience he couldn’t say much more about it.

My first thought, back when I first heard that Coulson was likely to be in S.H.I.E.L.D. was that it would not be the first time Whedon has revived a supposedly dead character to start a spinoff show, which Angie mentions in the linked article.

Indeed, Angel from the Buffy series was not intended to come back when Joss original “killed” him. But the network wanted a spinoff series, and Whedon decided Angel was the right character for that series. Of course, it was a little easier to bring Angel back because he wasn’t necessarily dead, just shuffled off to a hell dimension. As far as we knew, Coulson really was dead…or was he. We never saw the body, and we know that Nick Fury lied about the cards in his pocket just to get The Avengers together. Maybe Coulson wasn’t actually dead?