With his self-produced Shakespeare adaptation MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING getting its premiere at TIFF as we speak, Joss Whedon has been doing the press circuit to promote the independent project, a film that couldn’t be more of a polar opposite than THE AVENGERS in terms of scale and budget. But, as interested as we are to see MAAN, we’re Starburst, so naturally we really want to know about the big stuff, namely his Marvel TV show S.H.I.E.L.D., and his involvement in their PHASE TWO cycle. Luckily MTV News collared him at TIFF and grilled him for us, extracting the following nuggets…

* The show will feature all new characters apparently, meaning no familiar faces such as S.H.I.E.L.D. regulars Nick Fury, nor Maria Hill. Shame. We at least expected Colbie Smulders Hill to have a prominent role. But as we’ve said before, we’ll eat our hat if they don’t pop their heads in to say hello from time to time.

* Casting of the show is “very far” along.

* On what makes the show interesting, Whedon said, “what does S.H.I.E.L.D. have that other superheroes don’t? …They’re not superheroes, but they live in that universe. Even though they’re a big organization, that makes them underdogs, and that’s interesting to me.”

We can’t wait to see what Whedon’s cooking up here, and by the sounds of it we’ll know more quite soon.

In other related news, Whedon has also confirmed that, as we reported HERE, Troma verteran and SLITHER director James Gunn ‘will’ direct GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, despite no official announcement from Marvel Studios themselves. “He has a very twisted take on it, but it comes from a real love for the material. It’s going to be hard for the humans to keep up”, Whedon told MTV (again) recently. We’re big fans of Gunn’s work, so this is wonderful news. Bring on the Racoon!

MARVEL PHASE TWO Release Schedule:

Mark these dates in your calendars pronto! 

April 26th 2013 – IRON MAN 3

Nov 8th 2013 – THOR: THE DARK WORLD

(TBC) 2013 – S.H.I.E.L.D.

April 4th 2014 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Aug 1st 2014 – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

May 1st 2015 – UNTITLED MARVEL’S AVENGERS SEQUEL

(TBC) – ANT-MAN

And don’t forget, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE hits DVD/Blu-ray September 17th! Pre-order your copy below!

To read more on the S.H.I.E.L.D. show, click HERE.

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