Co-Producer & 'Agent Coulson' Actor Clark Gregg Reveal Marvel One-Shots Details!

“I got a call from a rising young executive over at Marvel named Kevin Feige to talk about the Avengers,” jokes Gregg. “In that conversation he said they had this crazy idea. They want to do some shorts about a couple of different days in the life of Agent Coulson. Some [would be] connective tissue between the movies and others are behind-the-scenes in the day of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and in my mind [Agent Coulson is] the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. And I said that sounds amazing! Usually when I’m asked to do a short it’s somebody’s grad project at AFI or a student film, but this was an entirely different ball game.”

“Making shorts is something we’ve been talking about for some time,” recalls Co-Producer Brad Winderbaum. “It’s a fun way to experiment with new characters and ideas, but more importantly it’s a way for us to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe and tell stories that live outside the plot of our features.”

“They were directed by the great Leythum, whose initial pitch was very inspiring and immediately made us confident in his vision,” reveals Winderbaum. “They were produced by the Ebeling Group who collected an incredibly talented crew of people to pull these off, including Director of Photography David Myrick and Production Designer David Courtemarche. We were also fortunate to have the films scored by the world renowned DJ Paul Oakenfold. And both shorts were written by the awesome Eric Pearson, who did a great job capturing the wit and humor we enjoy from Coulson in the features.”

“First and foremost it was an opportunity to work with Clark Gregg,” exudes Winderbaum. “The guy elevates everything he takes part in and we knew that if he was into it, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell some stand-alone Coulson stories with him. Also, in the case of ‘The Consultant,’ we wanted to paint a picture of S.H.I.E.L.D. pulling the strings and being responsible for some of the events we’ve seen in the films. What better character to represent this idea than Agent Coulson, the first S.H.I.E.L.D. agent we were introduced to in the first Iron Man film.”

“I think of Agent Coulson, after all these years, as a guy with a full life,” admits Gregg. “I think every day he’s somewhere doing something for S.H.I.E.L.D., and yet I don’t always know what that is. The fun thing for me is, every time I get a new script to see whether it’s Don Payne who wrote it or Joss Whedon, and whether it’s being directed by [Jon] Favreau or Ken Branagh, I’m always happy about it because I get to find out a little bit more about what his life is like and who he is. There’s always a different twist. In this one he gets to show more of his wisecracking wit, and in this one he’s a little bit more of a badass.”

“I was in the process of getting myself in fighting shape for the Avengers, s to find Agent Coulson in a situation where he might be involved in close quarters combat was exciting to me,” teases the actor. “[Coulson finds himself in a situation] where there is an imminent threat and no super heroes around. I was chomping at the bit for that, so I was definitely pumped for that moment to happen.

“In one of them there’s a daily crisis [in which] a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent deals with the World Security Council and one of our super heroes. To explore some of that stuff that connects the various movies I found very exciting as a fanboy at heart.”

“‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer…’ picks up after Agent Coulson leaves Tony Stark’s lab in Malibu during ‘Iron Man 2,’ and occurs before he arrives solo at the crater site in ‘Thor.’ ‘The Consultant’ takes place sometime after the plots of ‘Iron Man 2,’ ‘Thor,’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ but before ‘Marvel’s The Avengers.’”

“Whether it’s our tie-in comics like IRON MAN: PUBLIC IDENTITY and CAPTAIN AMERICA: FIRST VENGEANCE, the ‘Marvel One-Shots,’ or online experiences like StarkExpo or JoinSHIELD, if it enriches the films for our fans, then supporting the ongoing story of the MCU is something we always want to do. If these first two One-Shots are well received, we will absolutely make more of them!”