NBC entertainment chief Paul Lee says he has fast-tracked a Joss Whedon series based on "S.H.I.E.L.D," the Marvel comics peacekeeping agency featured in "The Avengers" and other films.
ABC announced in August, after the huge success of "The Avengers," that it had ordered a pilot based on the fictitious agency headed by Nick Fury (played in the movies by Samuel L. Jackson). Lee said in a Television Critics Association panel on Thursday that while ABC has not greenlit a series, it hopes to fast-track it if the pilot works out.
"We haven't yet seen the pilot," Lee said. "We fast-tracked that before the others. We're going to see it a lot earlier than the others. We're very hopeful that is going to move forward to series, we'll build our marketing campaign for it early. But we basically have the possibility of a show that can bring both men and women and kids, too."
Whedon, who wrote and directed the big-screen version of "The Avengers," is also writing the pilot, along with brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen ("Dollhouse").
"By the way, the script's great," Lee added. "I don't want to jinx it because that may not mean a good pilot or a good series, but we're very excited about it. Joss is wonderful to work with."
