Last month it was revealed that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is to add Mockingbird to the cast of the ABC show for its upcoming second season, with Adrianne Palicki (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) securing the role of super spy Bobbi Morse, and now showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen have talked about introducing the fan favourite character, as well as expanding the roster for the second season of the Marvel series.
“We’re very excited to have the beloved character, Mockingbird, on the show,” Tancharoen tells CBR. “Adrianne Palicki was a perfect fit for the role. She was someone we pictured from the beginning. It’s thrilling to have a nice, sort of skilled, sexy spy in the mix. And I think with the handful of characters that we have added to the show, it’s just to illustrate what the new S.H.I.E.L.D. may look like. Coulson is operating with limited resources, so he has to bring people into the fold. So it may feel like we’re expanding a lot, but really, the people that you will see are basically the people we have at our disposal.”
“We used to be a ragtag group in a huge machine that was churning,” adds Whedon. “Then, they were agents who had support. Now, that we have less, we sort of see all of them. So while our cast is getting bigger, it’s actually because S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting smaller, we’re using every resource we can. We all exist in one universe, and if we didn’t, we could have any character we wanted. We could kill them and do what we wanted with them. It is nice that we’re all in one universe, so when we get something, it does have weight. It does exist in the Cinematic Universe and we’re in constant communication with features, and there’s a database of what they’re using, what they plan to use, what we can and can’t use. We just try to carve out our little spot, and Mockingbird’s a good example of someone who we can really lean on as a major character.”
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to television on September 23rd with Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May), Chloe Bennet (Skye), Iain De Caestecker (Leo Fitz), Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma Simmons) and Brett Dalton (Grant Ward) returning to the cast alongside guest stars Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), J. August Richards (Deathlok), B.J. Britt (Antoine Triplett), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan), Kenneth Choi (Jim Morita) and new additions Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as Isabel Hartly, Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) as Daniel Whitehall a.k.a. Kraken, Nick Blood (Trollied) as Lance Hunter, Simon Kassianides (Quantum of Solace) as Bakshi, Henry Simmons (NYPD Blue) as Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie, Brian Patrick Wade (Teen Wolf) as Crusher Creel / The Absorbing Man and Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks) as Skye’s father. Watch the first promo here.
