Coulson lives, but will he cross paths with the one-eyed super-spy known as Nick Fury ever again? Joss Whedon certainly hope so.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron director spoke with press at the Television Critics Association presentation of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and stressed that he would "love to have" Samuel L. Jackson make an appearance on the new ABC television series. Indeed, Whedon added that he would happily place phone calls to Jackson and other members of the Avengers cast to appear on S.H.I.E.L.D., if such requests made sense for the story.

"I'm not going to go begging," he said, "and I'm not going to use up favors I need for The Avengers 2. As I say, the DNA of the show is the show. Those guys would be a delightful bonus, but we're not building our arcs around them."

"The good thing about the universe is that they're superstars in that universe. So if they showed up, if they overbalanced it slightly, that would actually make sense," Whedon said of the star-power the Avengers characters would bring to any possible S.H.I.E.L.D. appearances. "That's how people would react to them in the universe of the show, so I don't think that's a problem. I do think it's a problem if you have them too regularly and people are just wondering, 'When do I get to see a movie star again?' Instead of concentrating on these guys."

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Sept. 24 on ABC)

(source: IGN)