Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Five Things Learned From the Teaser

With the official release of the first Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trailer, ABC's upfront week has kicked off in earnest tonight. They've promised more details coming soon, but we figured it could be fun to take a look at that trailer and see what it is we think might be coming in the series. They won't shy away from the movies Footage and images from Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America kick off the ad, seemingly ensuring that the Marvel movieverse is not only canon in this show (which we knew), but will likely be explicitly referenced. Also interesting: Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk are both referenced in the Rising Tide site and the short video posted a few days ago. This suggests that the non-Disney Marvel Studios movies are going to be fair game in terms of using footage and/or making direct references.

"The whole world is in on the action." That's Coulson speaking, reminding us that this show takes place after The Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D. are no longer the gatekeeper for all information relating to superhumans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They censor people's blogs without being much noticed, but these Men in Black have no luck in a world where millions of New Yorkers saw their city under siege by the Chitauri. That makes the world of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. remarkably different from what it would have been if the show launched before Marvel's The Avengers. Think of how different Smallville was before and after it was widely known that there were people with powers operating in the world. They really mean the whole world. That motorcycle being chased by a car that flashes through the screen briefly? That appears to be in France (there's a French flag hanging from one building and the license plates on the car chasing it are certainly not American).

Clark Gregg isn't going to be sitting behind a desk or even standing around handing out orders like Samuel L. Jackson; as far as we can tell, they'll fulfill the promise of Agent Phil Coulson returning as a full-time field agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. We see him in action a couple of times in the ad, and while once appears to be back at headquarters looking at some kind of sophisticated holographic display, the other seems to be on the scene at the building we see on fire at the beginning of the ad. They're not skimping on the effects Marvel Studios and ABC are apparently putting a good deal of money and effort into crafting a show where people with powers, hyper-high-tech weapons and surveillance devices and all the rest are believable onscreen. If there's one thing that we've seen time and time again, it's that making those things exist is easy. Making them believable is hard, and expensive, and often not done right.

And a freebie: That sure as heck looked like J. August Richards as Luke Cage if you ask us.