4 Reasons Eric Pearson Should Handle The New ‘Avengers’ TV Series

So there’s an Avengers TV show in the works, kind of. It’ll be set in the same universe as The Avengers, but won’t actually feature any Avengers, since they’re expensive and tend to wreck up the place. Apparently it’ll be a cop show.

Why is this happening? Because Disney is struggling to figure out how to get its Marvel properties onto its broadcast channel and prop up ABC. AKA Jessica Jones ran into the small problem of Alias being god-awful and the show itself, by all accounts, being even worse. Surprisingly, once you strip away the profanity and awkward dialogue, you get a pretty crappy wannabe noir!

Apparently the idea is to somehow tie it into the universe without spending too much money. And if Disney wants to go that route, then it should hire Eric Pearson. Pearson is the guy behind the Agent Coulson shorts, and he also wrote Item 47, the upcoming Avengers short.

And really he’s ideally suited to this gig.

He’s Good At Filling In Gaps

One of the great parts about Pearson’s shorts is how he’s fit them in and around a bunch of enormous movies with sprawling universes without either A) stepping on anyone’s toe or B) compromising the intent of his shorts. Throw more movies at him and he can work around them.

He’s Great At Filling In Characters

Part of the reason fans got so attached to Coulson is that in the shorts we get to see more aspects of the guy’s personality. We got to see his wry sense of humor, his ability to kick ass, and the frustrations of his government job. And that’s in less than ten minutes of film.

He’s Basically Been Writing Cop Shows Anyway

The Consultant and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer are basically clips from cop shows. Item 47 is about two small-time crooks with a ray gun. Give Pearson the space he needs and he could deliver something special.

The Shorts Are Really a Blueprint For Making a Marvel Show That Isn’t Completely Stupid

Look, Disney, here’s the truth: we all know this show is going to revolve around a couple of SHIELD Agents, out in the field, trying to clean up various Marvel messes. Basically the X-Files with more of an action bent and fewer conspiracies. And that’s got some appeal. Two badasses who aren’t superheroes squaring off against both the dangerous and the ridiculous Marvel has to offer would be a pretty awesome TV show.

The good news is that Marvel has enough content in its vaults to make a show like this last for years. The bad news is that if you hire some random CSI showrunner, they’ll probably ignore all that and give us the same old procedural crap with a Marvel candy shell or worse, some retarded campfest. Seriously, the idea of most showrunners on an ABC show given a crack at Marvel comics from the ’70s fills me with dread. That was the era of Rocket Racer and the Big Wheel.

In exec-speak, most showrunners are going to dilute the brand.

Pearson’s worked his ass off. This guy spent time at Pixar and obviously dearly loves Marvel. He can’t be getting a lot of money to write these shorts.

If you’re going to do this, do this right and give the guy who’s been paying his dues his shot. He deserves it.

image courtesy Marvel

Quick Update: Pearson himself was nice enough to get in touch with us and let us know he’s not the same Eric Pearson who handled post-production on a few Pixar movies. Your writer can only humbly apologize to this other Eric Pearson, who we’re sure is a really great guy.

Also, OI! IMDB! Get it together!