Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD has been getting better with every episode. The cast is gelling with each other and everyone plays a roll. The mysteries of Agent Coulson’s return from the dead and Skye’s mysterious past are front and center and building, along with the question of who is The Clairvoyant (aka the first season’s “big bad”).  Now we have news that Thor‘s Lady Shif (Jamie Alexander) will be joining the mix in an upcoming episode. Will The Clairvoyant end up being tied to Asgard? Does Lady Shif hold the key to who he might be? Will anyone else from Asgard end up visiting our Government sponsored Scooby Gang? I’d love to also see Thor: The Dark World‘s Fandral (Zachary Levi) show up. It has been too long since we have seen Levi on the small screen.

Agent Carter is one step closer to becoming a reality as Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas (writers on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse) have been chosen as potential showrunners. The pair created the supernatural comedy Reaper, which was very enjoyable in its early run. It is interesting to think where they might go with Agent Carter, as we learned in the Marvel One-Shot short that she will be the co-head of the newly formed SHIELD, along with Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper). Rumor has it that Hayley Atwell will return as Peggy Carter, but no word on if Cooper will reprise Stark or if we’ll see other familiar faces from Captain America: The First Avenger, including Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi) or any of the other Howling Commandos.

On one hand, if the series gets made we’ll be able to visit some of the unseen Marvel history between the first Captain America and Ironman. But on the other hand, we already have a SHIELD series, do we really need a second one? I’d love to see a different side of the Marvel Universe, like Black Panther or Doctor Strange. But I guess both of them are rumored to be the center of future films. I guess we’ll see.

Wow. We have come a long way since 1998’s Nick Fury: Agent of SHEILD that featured David Hasselhoff in the starring role and was written by Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer. While I do admit that Hasselhoff was the spitting image of Fury, the movie was a joke like most of the efforts to adapt Marvel characters (remember Captain America‘s helmet or Roger Corman’s take on Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four).

Now enter Marvel Studio’s shared movie universe, which will be expanding onto the small screen and could provide us with as many as 20 new hours a year of content. ABC and Marvel have announced that they are going into production on a SHIELD pilot to be written and (possibily) directed by Joss Whedon, who not only helmed the big screen Avengers but created cult television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly. Joining Whedon on the new Marvel series will be usual contributors Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tanchareon, who both wrote for Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse and helped shape both of those properties.

At this time it is unknown whether we’ll see familiar faces such as Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury or Cobie Smulders’ Agent Maria Hill, or any of the big guns like Ironman, Hulk, Thor, etc. Depending on the time period of the show, there is always the chance to see Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson again. I think it is a given that we’ll see everyone from the Marvel universe in some capacity (even archive footage) at one point or another. The most exciting thing about the series is that they’ll be able to present so many more characters; including heroes, villains, and smaller supporting characters. What would bring in the ratings more than an episode that introduces Doctor Strange or Black Panther? Here is hoping that they will go all out- with Whedon directing the pilot and developing the series, they are taking all of the right steps. I can’t wait to hear more about SHIELD.