Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ten Marvel Characters We Want to See

As we did when Arrow first went on the air, we figured that tonight's first trailer for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was as good a chance as we were going to get to take a look at what little we know about the show so far and speculate as to what characters from the Marvel Comics universe might do particularly well on the series. Here are our ground rules, which are a bit more involved than they were for Arrow:

• Because Marvel has a cinematic universe to craft, we're not expecting non-S.H.I.E.L.D. characters from The Avengers and other films to appear on the series. If they do, it'll be great--but this isn't about "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to see Hulk again?".
• Similarly, we're also going to focus primarily on characters unlikely to appear in a solo film anytime soon. So no Ant-Man and Wasp; no Iron Fist, Runaways, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Dr. Strange. We'll treat these characters as we treat The Avengers.
• Because Marvel's characters are scattered as far as film rights, we're going to assume for the sake of argument that nobody will appear on the TV series who aren't lined up to appear in a Disney/Marvel Studios film, or couldn't if Marvel wanted them to. That means no X-Men, no Spider-Man characters, etc. If a character is owned by another studio for film, we'll assume they're off-limits for TV too, even though that might not technically be the case in 100% of situations.

Alright, so onto the list...

Jessica Jones The star of Brian Michael Bendis's Alias, wife of Luke Cage and almost-star of her own ABC series, Alias Jessica Jones, this character is just begging to be integrated into S.H.I.E.L.D., if for no reason other than that she's got a past, and contacts, with them extensively in the comics. There might be an issue with this character's rights, although likely not. After ABC turned down Alias Jessica Jones, Twilight screenwriter Jessica Rosenberg (who wrote the pilot episode) said in interviews that they were interested in shopping the show to other networks. It seems effectively dead at this point, but if it isn't ABC Studios who made the pilot, there could still be some holdup there.

Luke Cage Independent of Jessica Jones, her husband is a character that a lot of people would like to see in his own right but, like most of the characters on this list, it's difficult to imagine exactly how he would fit seamlessly into the tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be a nice way to roll some of these characters out, introducing them to fans and seeing which ones connect with the audience and could appear in future movies. Cloak & Dagger Characters with a strong cult following, they could easily bridge the gap between the street-level, counterterrorism-type work that S.H.I.E.L.D. will likely spend a lot of its time on and the high-powered superheroes. Honestly, we just thought of this one because of the dude in the hood in the six-second preview, which some are speculating could be Luke Cage but...a hoodie? Plus, "Cloak and Dagger" as allies and/or suspects in a spy show makes perfect sense.

Jennifer Walters Will we ever see She-Hulk on the big screen? Probably not. Frankly, there's a lot of suspension of disbelief that would have to happen to make it work, even before you deal with the fact that with such a deep character library it's unlikely that Marvel will be looking at gender-swapping popualr heroes just yet. They've got plenty of strong female leads waiting on the bench, just waiting for the coach to put them in. Still, when you've got a show about a law enforcement agency, there's really no reason they can't have a lawyer in a recurring role. Angie Harmon's interested. Wonder Man With his role as a bit of a spin doctor to the Avengers, his character would have great potential in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Doing damage control and PR for the organization while still having powers to fall back on if things get ugly, he could be a great recurring guest and give fans that taste of the cynical, self-interested superhero on TV that we aren't getting with the Booster Gold pilot seemingly in limbo.

The Punisher Obviously, he wouldn't work as a recurring character, but having The Punisher cross paths with the Agents--even if it's in a strictly off-camera way so they don't have to worry about casting the iconic role again just yet--could provide some interesting storytelling opportunities and be a great nod for fans. Shang-Chi Bringing him in as a trainer could be a possibility. He's one of a handful of "street-level" Marvel heroes who is really versatile in that he's been used in so many different ways in the comics that you could do almost anything with him as long as you got the personality right. Moon Knight You could make this one work pretty easily; just replace Marc Spector's CIA past with S.H.I.E.L.D. and voila! U.S. Agent

This could be an interesting thing to explore with Coulson; did the U.S. government try to "replace" Steve Rogers over the years, as they did in the comics? If so, how did it pan out? Obviously there may be elements of that explored in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but provided we don't see U.S. Agent actually appearing in there, the nature of his relationship with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who worships Rogers so much could be interesting. Silver Sable A mercenary and hunter of war criminals has huge potential in dealing with an anti-terrorist organization, and her characterziation over the years has been so all-over-the-map that you could basically reinvent the wheel without alienating too many fans.