Sci-Fi Premiere: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Starts Tonight on ABC

Tonight is the night! It’s been a long wait since ABC and Marvel first announced they were working on an Avengers spin-off television series from writer, director, and producer Joss Whedon. You voted it your most anticipated new show of the season.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres tonight.

The sci-fi action series follows a team of ordinary people who investigate the extraordinary, from aliens to people with super-powers to mysterious and potentially dangerous objects.

Clark Gregg reprises his film role of Agent Phil Coulson — who, if you’ll remember, was killed in the Battle of New York that concluded 2012’s The Avengers. The show is set just after that … so, yeah, there’s a mysterious explanation for why he is alive again.

Also starring in the series are Ming-Na Wen (ER, Stargate Universe) as pilot and combat expert Melinda May; Brett Dalton as long-time agent Grant Ward, who has just received “Level 7” clearance; Iain De Caestecker as tech expert Leo Fitz; Elizabeth Henstridge as bio expert Jemma Simmons; and Chloe Bennet as Skye, an anti-government activist who is drawn into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Here is the network’s synopsis of the first episode:

It’s just after the battle of New York, and now that the existence of super heroes and aliens has become public knowledge, the world is trying to come to grips with this new reality. Agent Phil Coulson is back in action and has his eye on a mysterious group called The Rising Tide. In order to track this unseen, unknown enemy, he has assembled a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division). The group’s first assignment together as a team finds them trying to track down an ordinary man who has gained extraordinary powers. Powers that could have devastating consequences.

Watch the trailer below, and then get more S.H.I.E.L.D. in SciFi Stream’s show guide! We’ve got episode info and spoilers, photos and screencaps, video, and more. We already have details on the next two episodes, titled “0-8-4” and “The Asset.”

And when the show is over, head over to our new Marvel Universe / Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. discussion board at GateWorld Forum to talk about the first episode!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.