It is no secret that Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson lives in the ABC series S.H.I.E.L.D. Although the character was killed off in Marvel's The Avengers, he will somehow be brought back to life in the planned Joss Whedon series, which recently finished its pilot. In a new interview with Collider, Gregg teased how Coulson's return will be explained.

"After people see the show, they’ll have some clue as to why I’m still there, still breathing," he said. "But I don’t think they’ll know everything."

Gregg admitted to being pretty terrified at the idea of jumping into television without his Avengers castmates, but he said there's "a pretty spectacular ensemble around me" in S.H.I.E.L.D. He said that Coulson being the "human factor of S.H.I.E.L.D." resonates on the small screen, and that he's "never seen anything like what we shot on a television screen before."

As for why Gregg loves Coulson so much, he said, "I’ve been so happy and living this geek fantasy as they kept adding Agent Coulson to everything including The Avengers and then gave him this magnificent, almost Shakespearean death scene, and I found out on that day how much I loved this guy and had come to identify with him partly because of the way fans responded to him, and also because he had such a great niche in those movies. He got to be funny, he got to be, in this case, heroic. And then I got to say good-bye to him, and it was a very emotional day."

He continued as to what got him on board in S.H.I.E.L.D., "I feel what Joss did with that was a fantastic conclusion of the character. And even though my friends at Marvel said, 'You know, we spent a lot of time talking about how Coulson lives, and we know that there’s a movement out there, and there are t-shirts and people paint on bridges ‘Coulson Lives’, we’re going to bring you back,' and it’s one of the many things people tell you that never ever happens. And then I get this call from Joss saying, 'Well ... there’s a script. And here’s what we’re thinking, and it’s after The Avengers, and here’s the concept.' By the time Joss finished telling me, I was in."

So will we see Coulson again in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie? Gregg thinks so.

"My feeling is that there’s no breaks in continuity with this and the Marvel movie universe," he said. "It makes sense in that universe, and I certainly feel like his chances of appearing in those movies are far better than when he was far out dead."