He may have been killed by a god, but that didn't stop Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson from returning to the Marvel Universe, albeit on the small screen. Gregg currently plays the role of the now Director Coulson on ABC's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, which is currently wrapping up its third season. The series has shown Phil to be working behind the scenes with a much more "underground" S.H.I.E.L.D. operation, and he's had his fair share of adventures. When asked by CBR News if he's hoping to reunite with his Avengers co stars somewhere down the line, Gregg was pretty honest. "No, I don't anymore. I suspect that will happen when it needs to happen, but it's not something that I'm sitting around thinking about. I really am thrilled with what our writers are doing in our particular portion of the universe. I know Marvel is run by people like Jeph Loeb and Kevin Feige and Louis D'Esposito, who are as much fans of the material as I am. And when the time is right for a story to be served by that, I'm sure [Coulson'll] do it. I really -- I have a lot of faith that it won't be done until it really serves a story, and not just to tie up loose ends or be a gimmick."
Despite this, Gregg loves working on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., and hopes his character can make a return to the field before the series concludes. "I mean, every time I think they've done pretty much everything they possible can -- you know, Nick Fury showed up at a moment of great peril at the end of Season One and made him the director of a S.H.I.E.L.D. that no longer existed, and he had done his very best at it. It's been very, very difficult, and he's honored by the task, but I hope at some point, before it's all over, he gets a chance to go back into the field."
With the character having started as a one-off appearance in Iron Man, it's quite astonishing how Coulson's role has expanded on film and television; the character was even introduced in the Marvel comic books. When quizzed about the impact his character has had on the Marvel brand, Gregg was rather gracious and humbled by his success. "I think this is an amazing experiment, and I can't say enough about how fun it is to be part of something where the people who are telling these stories, the writers and directors, and the producers, the people who run Marvel. They keep doing it well, no matter how weird or off-beat the property, because they love it so much, and the fact that it is still all one story. It may not be all the characters in every project, but the fact that it's all one story happening across these, from Netflix to TV to the movies. That just is a grand storytelling experiment that I really enjoy as an adult, and I feel like the 11-year-old Clark on my shoulder, we're both having really the time of our life watching it."
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About The Author:
Matt is a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, and has been a fan of superheroes since he picked up his first comic book issue as a child. While he works as a professional musician, Matt has a massive passion for comic books, films and heroes, along with participating in discussion and debate with the CBM community.