‘Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Spoilers: How Is Agent Coulson Alive? Dead Character’s Backstory To Be Revealed

Marvel comic fans are excited about the new ABC series “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, scheduled to debut in the fall, but many have a lot of questions regarding the resurrection of Clark Gregg’s character, Agent Coulson.

Gregg has appeared as Coulson, a member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency, in a series of Marvel superhero movies, including “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” Thor” and, most recently, “The Avengers.” In “The Avengers,” Coulson is responsible for assembling the dream team of superheroes and goes into combat himself when he threatens an illusion of Loki. Coulson ends up being stabbed from behind by the actual Loki, and speaks briefly to director Nick Fury before becoming nonresponsive. In the movie Coulson tells Fury that the heroes need something to avenge, and Fury uses a few blood-stained vintage Captain America cards that Coulson treasured to get his point across. However, Maria Hill, another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, discovered that Fury’s use of the cards with the heroes was a fabrication, having come from Agent Coulson’s locker, not his jacket.

It appeared as if Agent Coulson died in “The Avengers,” yet Clark Gregg will be reprising his role for “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.” How does that work?

Clark Gregg told Entertainment Weekly back in May that he was surprised by his character’s resurrection in “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“I thought they were pranking me a little bit because there was so much blood on the set of ‘The Avengers,’” Gregg told the site. “I kept waiting to see, are we going to shoot a version where [Loki] misses? And they didn’t, so I was really surprised to get that call and I wanted to make sure it didn’t do anything to undermine what we achieved there, and when [writer-director-co-creator Joss Whedon] explained the mystery and how they planned to deal with it, with Agent Coulson being around, I was very sold.”

What exactly is the “plan,” you may ask? According to some new spoilers from EW, the pilot will hint that Agent Coulson was “resurrected” post-NYC “Avengers” destruction to lead the team. The site also teased that Coulson’s colleagues will reportedly say that their leader must “never know the truth” regarding his death.

“We can’t wait to pull the curtain back on that,” Whedon teased. “[But] we’re going to take our time.”

“He thinks he knows how he’s back,” Gregg teased of his character. “We’ll have to see.”

How do you think Agent Coulson comes back to life? Let us know in the comments section.”