This past weekend at San Diego Comic Con, the Marvel report was invited to a press event with some of the cast and crew of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and had the opportunity to talk to Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb and Executive Prouder Jeff Bell and ask them some questions about the upcoming season of the show.
During the interview, Jeph Loeb made it clear that fans would not have to wait long to catch a glimpse of the Ghost Rider once the show premiered on September 20th.
You can watch the full interview with Jeph Loeb and Jeff Bell below.
Are there any specific stories from the comics you’re looking at for Ghost Rider during this season?
Loeb: What we’ve always believed is, there’s no point in taking a story directly from the comics and just putting it into live action. You already know the end of that story and it’s disrespectful of the original material and it’s kind of a waste of time on the television side.
Bell: I’d like to do it because I think it’d be easy.
Loeb: Yes, the writers would have a much easier time.
You guys have had a theme – bringing in Ghost Rider now, what is that theme moving forward into the next season? Is it focused on magic? What is the focus going to be in the next season?
Bell: Without getting to far ahead of myself, the way it makes sense to us was, you know Ghost Rider is a vengeance theme, and last year there was a fair amount of vengeance happening. Daisy was going out and doing her stuff, Coulson was doing vengeance with Ward and that sort of stuff, so a lot of those attitudes were explored. At the end of last season, we saw Daisy go off and split on her own. Sort of like the Batman side…
Loeb: You mean, like the Daredevil side?
Bell: And by Batman, I mean Daredevil…. and so to us it seemed like thematic elements that could play in…Robbie has a brother, Gabe – family stuff and relationships is always at the center of SHIELD – how Coulson treats Daisy – all of those family relationships. Though the supernatural, magic aspect is different, thematically, it felt like it fit really well.
Loeb: I’d also go to the place which is where we originally started SHIELD – [a group] that looked after and explored the strange, the odd, the bizarre, and determined whether or not those things were dangerous. And then had to figure out where they were going to go with that. So, this to me felt like a very obvious place to go in the sense of – okay, here’s something that is strange and new and odd and weird, so shouldn’t SHIELD be checking it out?
What’s the plan for Ghost Rider – is he going to be in just a couple of episodes?
Loeb: I think what you should do is on September 20th – on our premier night – is the place to find out – you’re not going to have to wait very long.
Be sure to check out our other Agents of SHIELD interviews with Ming-Na Wen, Iain de Caesetecker, EPs Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, Clark Gregg and Henry Simmons.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD premieres on September 20 at 10pm on ABC.