The Hulk On TV? That Almost Never Happens: ABC Reportedly Picks Up S.H.I.E.L.D. Series

We’ve known for months now that Marvel has been, with the help of Joss Whedon, putting together a television pilot about S.H.I.E.L.D. to tie into the Avengers and other Marvel movies, because hey: a billion or so dollars is nice, but who doesn’t want an extra 20 or so million dollars every yer between September and May?

And, beyond the reported resurrection of Agent Phil Coulson in the series, that’s pretty much all we’ve known. After all, a lot of TV pilots are shot every year that never make the cut (Powers, anyone?)… although you’d think that a series based on a series of movies that have made more money than Greece would be the kind of easy money bet that any network would take, let alone ABC, who’s one bad Dancing With The Stars cast away from having to offer to blow CBS for nickels.

And it looks like they’re ready to take that bet – Entertainment Weekly is reporting that ABC is ready to pull the trigger and order a full season of the S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

Apparently the news isn’t official yet, but the rumor is that things are close enough to official that ABC is rumored to be airing the first teaser promo for the series will air this Sunday between 8 and 9 p.m. eastern time.

And to help seal the deal, for a while there yesterday, there was a leaked video of footage supposedly from the show. It was grainy, surveillance-style footage of the Hulk going apeshit on front of a bunch of cars… and it was pulled by Disney via a DMCA request. I haven’t been able to find another copy of the video, but if it was legit (and the copyright claim by Disney kinda points to that), it means that maybe we can expect the odd cameo in the series.

So yeah: a Joss Whedon sci-fi series on television. My guess it is will air on Fridays at 8, our of order, before facin summary cancellation.

(via Entertainment Weekly and Newsarama)