‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’: Joss Whedon favorite J. August Richards signs on

It looks like the cast for Joss Whedon’s upcoming small-screen adaptation of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” just got that much more exciting for his longtime fans. Why? He has just cast someone made famous for their part in “Angel” in a very mysterious role.

According to new reports, J. August Richards has signed on to appear in the ABC project’s pilot episode, but at the moment there is not exactly a flood of details coming in about the role save for the fact that the pilot was shot in February, and some of the other stars appearing in it are Ming-Na and Clark Gregg, reprising his role from “The Avengers” feature film. Cobie Smulders has expressed interest in playing Maria Hill on the show at some point, but she is rather busy at the moment courtesy of “How I Met Your Mother Mother.”

In some ways, it is the mystery behind this pilot that makes it so exciting. Few people outside of select executives have seen anything related to the pilot right now, and the set was much more closed-off than some of the other shows currently in development. With that in mind, it’s hard to know just what ABC thinks about the show. The easy assumption would be that they would desperately want to pick it up, considering that the network needs male-skewing shows and it wants to continue a partnership with Marvel. However, who knows what way that they are really leaning towards right now?

What do you think about this casting? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and if you want to read some more scoop on some of the best pilots currently floating around out there, you can do so by visiting the story over at the link here.

Photo: ABC