Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Had to Change Its Name For Legal Reasons

Here's one that everybody's been assuming for a while, but it wasn't entirely clear whether it was true or not--well, now it is. During his interview with the Entertainment Weekly Inside TV podcast released last night, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. producer Joss Whedon admitted that the show's title was changed for legal reasons. Asked whether the show's title changes were as a result of Fox, who own the title Shield thanks to the long-running FX series produced by The Walking Dead's Glen Mazzara, Whedon confirmed that suspicion. "Yes, it was a whole problem," Whedon answered. "We called it S.H.I.E.L.D. and now it's Tales of Marvel's Disney's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the Next Generation." So...score one for Fox, who have been quietly standing off with Marvel over rights issues on Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, a pair of characters to whom both studios have the rights, and who both studios intend to put in their next X-Men and Avengers films.