There are just a few more details emerging about the proposed Marvel-Univere based series that was announced alongside Joss Whedon's confirmation for the Avengers 2 director's chair. We now know that the ABC series, will be based around the SHIELD organisation (the acronym for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division... or at least so in the film version), which we've seen being run by Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury in the Avengers film (and the cameos in the preceding standalone superhero outings).
However, early reports that Whedon would be the official showrunner for the TV project may be slightly wide of the mark and it would be more accurate to say he's the one overseeing a cohesive whole to the strategy. Or in his own description to Variety, the 'right to pepper in things here and there' with his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen acting as showrunners with (Joss) being able to '...turn up and take the credit'. At this point he DOES look to be directing the pilot with co-writing duties.
Whedon has said that the SHIELD show would largely be autonomous from the Avengers sequel, though one suspects that the opportunity to directly tie-in the show to the record-breaking film franchise will not be missed. It is not known if Jackson will reprise his role in the pilot, but one ALSO suspects that would be a good hook. Though shows like Firefly and Dollhouse failed to achieve on-screen longevity, they did get strong viewer-loyalty Whedon/Mutant Enemy shows tend to mix action and drama with a very human side, so expect the SHIELD project to be less expensive than its big-screen counterpart but no less intense...
