Announced at the end of last month… the espionage and secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe, known as S.H.I.E.L.D, is heading at ABC as a serial, with Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed the big-screen version of The Avengers, shepherding, along with his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse).

Josh Whedon will also executive produce, with Jed, Tancharoen, Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb of Marvel Television.

In that initial announcement, I wondered whether Samuel L. Jackson, who plays S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury, will be involved with the series in any way, and what S.H.I.E.L.D. agents will be included in the cast of characters, adding that I'd expect Whedon will work on turf that's most familiar to mainstream Avengers audiences. 

Skip ahead to today, speaking with MTV News while promoting Much Ado about Nothing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Whedon revealed that he's "very far" in the process of creating the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV universe, and has even already built and assembled "a full framework and a full cast," that would consist of all new characters, instead of those we've already seen in the Marvel movies.

Great idea! Give some new characters life, instead of recycling the same ones.

Whedon doesn't share what S.H.I.E.L.D members will be in the series, so we'll just have to wait for that official announcement.

Those in-the-know would be aware that there are dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D agents/members, and as you'd suspect, some of them are black. So, for all you comic book pros, I'll hand the mic over to you folks for your own S.H.I.E.L.D dream team. What would it look like? Who would be a part of that universe?