Fans have many questions about ABC's Marvel series, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Before the trailers hit the biggest one was "how did Coulson survive?", but now people seem to be a bit more curious about former Angel actor J. August Richard's appearance as the mysterious "superhero" formerly assumed to be Luke Cage. Yesterday we posted a clue that seemed to link his character to another Marvel tough guy named Rage, but now it seems both guesses were wrong. IGN caught up with the show's executive producer Jeffrey Bell, and asked him all about it.
IGN: And I’ve got to ask about J. August Richards…
Bell: Killed it! He’s so good. He’s so good, because we were looking for this character M-- I almost said his name. It’s not the one people are talking about.
IGN: He’s not! So I’m going to say Luke Cage, and you’re going to say...
Bell: I’m going to say that’s an interesting Marvel character, but no. But he came in and killed it. Honestly, we were looking for this part, and we just said, look, all our parts are open to all diversity. So the fact that we have a black dude who is awesome and it's J, was just because he was the best actor. It wasn’t like, “You know who…!”
IGN: Should we assume it’s someone familiar if you read Marvel comics?
Bell: You know, not necessarily. I mean, we’re going to draw from it, but Marvel has its thing, and we’re also going to be expanding forward, and this world is different since The Avengers. So I think there will be people showing up, some from the Marvel Universe and some not. But to commit to anything more would be telling.
So whoever he is, it appears his name begins with an "M" anyway -- and it also sounds like he'll be an original creation just for
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D and not an established Marvel Comics character. Bell goes on to say that Richards is a guest star, and although we can expect many others, not every character will have superpowers. Click the link below for the full interview.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.