Last weekend brought the $137 million franchise-best debut of director Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4 starring Keanu Reeves. Later this year, director Christopher McQuarrie’s Tom Cruise action sequel Mission: Impossible - Dead Reackoning Part One is expected to set a franchise record when it bows in July. And of course, last year saw the remarkable $1.49 billion box office run of director Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick, also starring Cruise. Which all strongly suggests Marvel needs an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. franchise to play in the same sandbox.
The ABC television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started out good, but eventually became great, and remains one of the best all-time superhero TV series. Nevertheless, it was also limited in many regards, due to the nature of its platform and budget, as well as a lack of direct tie-ins and crossovers with the Marvel Cinematic films. The series, while sporting a stellar cast who deserve every bit of praise, also lacked the bigger names and familiar stars whose presence and names alone can open pictures.
What has always been needed is a big film franchise — or set of franchises, or connected solo films — focused entirely on the super-spies and action-adventure missions of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This was instantly apparent in 2012 while watching The Avengers. Those sequences aboard the Hellicarrier are still some of the best of any superhero movie. It was so obvious, and so very easy to imagine what it would look like.
Imagine for a moment if the Mission: Impossible movies were about Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on those missions instead. Call this one Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with the respective subheadings.
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