New job, new responsibilities, new dangers.

When Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns in September for its second season, fans can expect things to heat up for Phil Coulson, recently appointed director of the recently dissolved Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

"Last we saw them, they were being hunted," co-showrunner Jed Whedon tells Zap2It.com. "They were no one's friends. They're in a bit of a pickle when we find them."

Coulson in particular will be having a hard time trusting people, given all of the Hydra betrayals at the end of the first season.

"Once we could say 'Hydra' and there were double-crosses and spies in our midst, the show got really interesting," said executive producer Jeffrey Bell, "and so [we're] continuing that with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson not willing to trust people and not willing to bring people in, but having to because he doesn't have as many resources; we think we can keep that 'trust no one' alive."

Overall, the people running Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. feel much more confident about their second season than their first, which was panned by many critics, despite an uptick in quality with the final cluster of episodes.

"We have our arcs, we have our tentpoles, and we have quite a few off the board," said co-showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen. "We're starting production on our first episode next week, so that's pretty fun."

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.