Marvel’s Agent Carter Coming to ABC, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Renewed

Ever since the spectacular Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter debuted on the Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray release last year, it’s been rumored that star Hayley Atwell could get her own TV series, presumably on ABC or online, similar to the other heroic Marvel series heading to Netflix.

But with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wavering under so-so ratings alongside fan indifference and critical drubbings, adding another S.H.I.E.L.D. series seemed iffy at best, at least to those of us on the outside. Turns out that with the sudden uptick in viewership, thanks in no small part to the immediate impact felt from the S.H.I.E.L.D. shakeup that went down in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was what was needed to put another S.H.I.E.L.D. show on the docket, albeit in another time period, as well as bring back the original for a second season on ABC.

Agent Carter, executive produced by Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters, Steve McFeely, Christopher Marcus, and Jeph Loeb, will take place in 1946, after the end of World War II and the loss of Captain America. Tasked by Howard Stark to run S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter will follow the titular character’s adventures in the early days of the spy agency. But will we also get Dominic Cooper to return to the role of Howard Stark or maybe Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan? The jury is still out on the cast, but the fact that we’ll be getting an intelligent, beautiful, and tough-as-nails female-led spy drama on TV is more than enough for me. If the series can capture even a sliver of the fun found in the Marvel One-Shot, they’ve got a hit on their hands.

But all of this makes me wonder… These Marvel One-Shots are essentially turning out to be sneaky little backdoor pilots. The Item 47 Marvel One-Shot on the Avengers Blu-Ray essentially became Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now Agent Carter has a series. Does this mean we could see a Trevor series? I doubt Ben Kingsley would sign up for a whole series, but I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him. Either way, it’s a good bet that we should all be keeping our eyes on these One-Shots as much as we do the post-credit sequences at the end of every Marvel movie. You never know what the next part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will next take center stage.

Image: Marvel