What should we expect from Marvel's just-announced S.H.I.E.L.D. television series? According to show creator Joss Whedon, something that'll work as well for non-Marvel fans as it does for the hardcore fanbase - and that, whatever it is, it's something that everyone involved so far loves, even though it's not guaranteed to actually happen just yet. So who at ABC do we need to bribe to get that guarantee, exactly...?Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Whedon said that "the S.H.I.E.L.D. show kind of dropped in my lap, and I love working in TV." He continued, "I get to really build a show with people I really trust and love," referring to his brother Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen, who'll be co-writing the show's pilot episode with him and serving as show runners should the series be picked up by ABC (They've previously worked with Whedon on Dollhouse and as co-writers of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, so you should trust them too). "What we're building is entirely autonomous from The Avengers. It's gotta be a show that works for people who haven't seen the Marvel movies. It will please Marvel fans, I think," he said.

That he wasn't the only one in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. was something he touched on again when interviewed by New York Magazine's Vulture blog. "It was part of what made [the Marvel Studios deal] attractive to me," he said. "I loved the idea of being a consigliere. Every writer loves the idea of being able to go in and fix a problem and then leave without obligation. It's fun!"

Saying that working with the Marvel characters had made him revisit comics he read as a kid and realize that "they shaped my storytelling way more than I give them credit for," he went on to say that "Now I'm starting up a TV show, which is something I really wanted to do, but I thought it wasn't going to be a part of my life for the next several years. It's like a tapas menus of projects that excite me, in addition to the Avengers sequel, which I'm excited for because I'm incredibly excited about the next story that I'm going to tell. For me, it's a huge win."

Before we all get carried away with excitement over the show, though, Whedon sounded a note of realism. "You know, I can't guarantee that any of that will happen," he said, referring to the fact that ABC ordering a pilot isn't a guarantee that the show will ever make it to air, never mind become a full series. "Good support is wonderful, but it's not a hill of beans, because they may give us all this support and then decide, 'Eh. Yeah, it's Friday.' They might give us all the support and then not do that, but then audiences might go, 'Yeahhh ... no.' You just can't be sure. What I do know is that it's the show it should be, and we've got some really dope notions."

"So far, it feels just fine." he summed up. "The important thing to me is that we know what the show is. We love what it is. It came together very organically, so when we went in to pitch [to Marvel], it wasn't like, We're trying to find this because you want a TV show, it was, Check this out."

For those wanting a hint of Whedon's take on Marvel's Supreme Spy Organization, it's worth pointing out that The Avengers starts a limited-run re-release in theaters today, and is released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 25.