There have been so many questions regarding Joss Whedon’s upcoming ABC pilot ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ since it was given the green light at the end of the summer. Even more questions arouse after it was announced that Clark Gregg was going to star in the series at last year’s New York Comic Con. Now, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is when is the series set since Agent Phil Coulson met his unfortunate demise in Whedon’s epic film ‘The Avengers’. Well, it appears that we have just discovered the answer to that question.

In a recent interview, ABC President Paul Lee gave us a pretty clear and concise answer to the setting question:

“There is no question that it is part of the Marvel Universe. In fact, the story takes place after the battle for New York.”

All the prequel theories can now be scrapped because that’s about as clear as we’re going to get about that. However, the question still remains on how exactly Coulson is back if the show is set after the battle of New York. Flashbacks are still a possibility, but who knows what the ‘Firefly’ creator and his team have up their sleeves. That Joss Whedon is a tricky one!

Lee went on to describe how the show will fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has already been carved out:

“This is S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re following their own particular stories. There are characters in it, Coulson, who clearly come from ‘Avengers’. So it’s part of the world, but we’re going to be very, very careful that we don’t tread on the toes of the features and build a whole new world. And that’s what Joss Whedon does better than anybody else. He’s built a world for us.”

The director himself spoke to MTV and expanded on the idea of how the show will mesh into and stack up against the movies:

“You’ve got to bring a bit of spectacle to it. It’s got to be bigger than your average cop show. But at the end of the day, it’s about the peripheral people. It’s about the people on the edges of the grand adventures. The whole point of the show is that even with all these big things, the little things matter. So it’s about people who don’t have super powers. There will be some people with powers, there will be FX, there will be the spectacle of science-fiction storytelling, but all played on a very human, small level. That’s the appeal of the thing.”

Filming for ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ is set to begin this week with the hopes of being ready for the fall television season. While the show hasn’t been given a series order yet, everyone is getting rather excited for Whedon’s return to TV and Coulson’s return to the Marvel Universe. Hopefully when it’s all said and done, the pilot warrants the order and the network allows the winning combination of Whedon and Marvel to stick around.

Source: IGN