Marvel And ABC In Talks For Possible ‘Avengers’ Spin-Off TV Show

With Guillermo del Toro's Hulk taking its time and planned television versions of The Punisher and Alias not being picked up by networks, there's a Marvel Comics-shaped hole in network television right now. That's something that ABC and Marvel are said to be working on, however, with a live-action primetime spin-off of this summer's The Avengers movie apparently being discussed.Deadline broke the news over the weekend that Marvel TV -- headed by Avengers: X-Sanction and Ultimatum writer Jeph Loeb -- and ABC Studios are apparently having early discussions about what the site describes as "a drama series in the Avengers world." The usual anonymous sources report that the series wouldn't be a direct spin-off of the movie -- none of the characters from the record-breaking film would be likely to appear, apparently; something that's unsurprising when you consider their movie careers and resulting price tags -- but would "feature some of its themes and feel."

Amongst the ideas being discussed is a "high-concept cop show," which may mean that Marvel's Bendis will have competition for his own creator-owned Powers -- a series which has essentially the same high concept -- currently in the works at FX. Oddly enough, the idea of setting a ground-level series in the same world as the Marvel Studios movies was central to the AKA Jessica Jones series that ABC passed on earlier this year, except with a private investigator instead of a police officer as the lead. Perhaps we'll see that show reconsidered, or maybe we'll get the follow-up to Item 47 that has been rumored since news of that Marvel One-Shot first broke earlier this month. After all, Lizzy Caplan does TV, right...?

[Via Deadline]