In The Avengers, SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson sees death at the hands of Thor's brother, Loki. But we all know that Coulson survived that encounter because he became one of the main characters of ABC's Agents of SHIELD TV series.
However, the director of The Avengers, recently addressed that "Coulson problem" in an interview with Mental Floss, and more or less, stated that in his version of the Marvel universe, Phil Coulson is still dead.
"And the Coulson thing was, I think, a little anomalous just because that really came from the television division, which is sort of considered to be its own subsection of the Marvel universe," says Whedon. "As far as the fiction of the movies, Coulson is dead."
In ABC's Agents of SHIELD, director Nick Fury brings Coulson back to life after Coulson receives an injection of alien blood. Titled Project TAHITI, Coulson remained unaware of that throughout most of the series first season, but eventually discovered that this transfusion makes him something a little more than human. The move was a controversial one for fans of the Marvel universe, with some appreciating seeing more of Clark Gregg as Coulson, and others thinking his rebirth being a cop-out.
Whedon discussed how now knowing that ABC brought Coulson back from the dead has interfered with the emotional impact of the scene where Loki "kills" Coulson in The Avengers. But he also admitted that's part of working in such a large entertainment universe, where there are different divisions working on different projects.
"There's a thing where you can do that so many times and there's nothing at stake," says Whedon. "But it's difficult because you're living in franchise world-not just Marvel, but in most big films-where you can't kill anyone, or anybody significant."
Fans of Whedon's previous work (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) know that he is somewhat notorious for killing characters off. However, he also says that this doesn't mean that he doesn't want to do battle scenes with little emotional impact: the threat of death in such scenes makes them better. So how does he deal with what Marvel dictates? He sets the scene up, ready for a character sacrifice, and then lets Marvel make the final call.
Whedon also discusses what it's like writing for characters that already have histories and backgrounds, such as Marvel's superheroes and villains, as well as creating two new characters in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters worldwide on May 1.
[Photo Credit: ABC]
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