"My last day on The Avengers involved this certain Asgardian fellow impaling me quite convincingly, and I while I was surprised how emotional it was to me to give up the character - and the long-term employment - I made jokes like, 'Is there a rewrite going to be coming from the governor at any point? Do you want to shoot one scene where Loki just grazes me a bit?' But it was clear that I was dead."
However, life somehow goes on for the revived Agent Coulson. "I couldn't believe it," says Gregg. "Four or five months after we shot The Avengers, I got a call from Joss Whedon. Of course I was on board immediately."
Before he put on Coulson's badge in 2008's Iron Man, Gregg, 51, had a screen-acting CV dominated by TV roles, his biggest being a four-year run as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' ex-husband on The New Adventures of the Old Christine. He's now the star of one of the biggest TV shows of recent years.
"Agent Coulson is a magnificent chain-letter that began in Iron Man with two scenes that my neighbour, Jon Favreau, asked me to do," says Gregg. "The minute I showed up and got snarky with Robert Downey, suddenly, there were more scenes and he was in more movies. At a certain point Agent Coulson became the guy in Lollapalooza, hanging out in the green room managing all these diva rock stars. But at heart, he's a fanboy - he's the nerd avatar who absolutely believes in the heroic stuff."
Says Whedon: "It's a testament to Clark. He was given a couple of lines in a movie, and look where he and Agent Coulson are now."
As AoS executive producer, Whedon has a complicated job that includes connecting the dots between the shows and the movies, like last year's Thor: The Dark World and forthcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Two AoS instalments in the first season are "crossover episodes" to those movies. "The show has to work for people who won't watch the movies," says Whedon. "And of course there will be linkage and crossovers between the TV show and the films, so we have to be careful for the fans who watch both."
The AoS squad includes a mix of familiar and fresh faces from both sides of the Atlantic, ranging from ER and Stargate regular Ming-Na Wen to Scottish actor Iain De Caestecker, who played Ken Barlow's grandson on Coronation Street.
The team, with its mix of brains, brawn and beauty, brings to mind past Whedon ensembles. And although they operate in a superhero world, they they are decidedly mortal.
"The thing that appealed to me about the TV show is that these people don't have superpowers," says Whedon. "These people didn't get the hammer [of Thor], didn't get the super-soldier serum. They are the underdog, the common man.
"And while they are incredibly good at what they do and ridiculously attractive, they don't fall under the category of 'super'."
Even so, Agent Coulson has some pretty cool gadgets at his disposal - such as his little red Corvette named Lola that comes with modifications that would make the Bond boffin, Q, jealous. And its driver has a little bit of 007 in him, says the actor who plays him. "If James Bond and Walter Mitty had a child, I believe Agent Coulson is that. He's not used to being in charge, but now that he is, he kind of likes it."
Who:Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
What: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
When and where: TV2 from Sunday, Feb 16 at 8.30pm
- TimeOut
