To the surprise of no one, ABC has confirmed that Joss Whedon's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been picked up to series from Marvel Studios, bringing the cinematic Marvel universe to television for the first time… and Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson back to life, in the process.

Whedon, who wrote and directed last year's Marvel's The Avengers in which Coulson was killed, directed and co-wrote the pilot episode along with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, his collaborators from both Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and the short-lived Dollhouse series; the two will act as showrunners for the new series.

The official ABC description of the series goes like this:

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet). From Executive Producers Joss Whedon (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”); Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” pilot co-writers (“Dollhouse,” “Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”); Jeffrey Bell (“Angel,” “Alias”); and Jeph Loeb (“Smallville”) comes Marvel’s first TV series. “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

It's not exactly Marvel's first TV series; the animated side of the company has been running Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes on Disney XD for some time, with the latter show about to be replaced by the more movie-friendly Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH series.

Viewers will get their first chance to take a look at the show this Sunday, when a special trailer for the series (which leaked online yesterday, before being quickly removed by Disney's ever-vigilant lawyers) airs during the season finale of Once Upon A Time on ABC.