The summer’s just about over and surely one of the clear-cut winners in terms of superhero movies is Marvel Studios’ Iron Man, and in the nearly four months since it came out, there’s been a lot of talk about its already-in-the-works sequel Iron Man 2. We already know that director Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. were coming back, and we presume that so is Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow, since they’ve both signed multi-picture deals, but what about some of the agents of Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.) who were introduced in the first movie?
Yesterday, Superhero Hype! talked with actor/filmmaker Clark Gregg about his directorial debut, an ambitious adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke starring Sam Rockwell, which garnered a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival. When we asked him about what he had coming up next, he mentioned returning for the new season of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ hit CBS sitcom “The New Adventures of Old Christine” on which he’s a regular, but also that he held out some hope that he’d returning as Agent Phil Coulson in the sequel.
“I was on a plane with Robert Downey the other day, and I was saying, ‘C’mon now, I’m feeling Coulson’s gotta come back!’ so we’re open,” he told us before joking, “I’m pretty sure Downey will be in the next one. I’m pretty sure Gwyneth (will be).”
But what about Samuel L. Jackson, who made a brief post-credit cameo as the one and only Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. We spoke to him at Comic-Con International last month and this is what he had to say about reprising the role in future Marvel Films:
“We’ve talked about it and there’s up until 2011 before ‘The Avengers’ shows up, so he’ll show up periodically from time to time.”
So while there’s essentially no real news if either of the S.H.I.E.L.D. staples will be returning, there’s high hopes that Marvel knows they have a good thing if they’ve already talked to Jackson about returning, and we’ll have to see if Clark Gregg prodding Downey will be enough to bring back Fury’s wingman Agent Coulson.
Look for our full interview with Gregg about his movie Choke sometime before it opens on September 26 and more with Jackson on The Spirit coming soon!
Source: Edward Douglas
