 In June 2013 , Clark Gregg explained how the series would tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe films : " ... the exciting part is going to be seeing the way that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. interacts with the S.H.I.E.L.D. component in Captain America 2 , and the other movies , and whether those movies will then affect our show . " Joss Whedon did state that the show would be autonomous from The Avengers , saying " It 's gotta be a show that works for people who haven 't seen the Marvel movies . It will please Marvel fans , I think . " He reiterated that sentiment in an interview at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival , explaining " It 's new characters . It needs to be its own thing . It needs to be adjacent [ to The Avengers ] ... What does S.H.I.E.L.D. have that the other superheroes don 't ? And that , to me , is that they 're not superheroes , but they live in that universe . Even though they 're a big organization , that [ lack of powers ] makes them underdogs , and that 's interesting to me . " 
