Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is in trouble, facing struggling ratings and a declining audience. The producers need to do something soon to shake things up or the once promising show may find itself off the air. Now, in an effort to turn things around, Marvel is bringing on Patton Oswalt to guest star. Yup, that’s apparently the best they can do.
Set to play Agent Eric Koenig, the actor is quite excited about the opportunity, saying:
“I got a call from my agent saying they want you on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I said ‘hell, yes,’” recounts the actor. “I’m lucky that I’m visible enough that they wanted to bring me in to play this character. I’d worked with [‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Executive Producer] Joss [Whedon] before on ‘Dollhouse,’ and I guess I wasn’t too annoying and they decided to put me on another one of his shows. So I was very lucky.”
“When they first told me the character’s name, I’ll admit the first thing I did is I went on Wikipedia and looked up the M.O.D.O.K. character to see if Koenig was maybe his name before he became M.O.D.O.K., but it wasn’t,” laughs Oswalt. “They keep on talking about the Clairvoyant in the show and I’m like, ‘is that M.O.D.O.K.? Am I M.O.D.O.K.?”
For those unfamiliar with Koenig, he first appeared in “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos” #27 back in 1966. Having fought in WWII alongside Nick Fury, Koenig was also part of the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. No word yet on how Marvel plans to use him in their show but I would imagine that it won’t be a “one and done” type gig.
As just a casual fan and someone who hasn’t heard the name Eric Koenig until today, I can’t say that this announcement does very much to make me optimistic about the future of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Perhaps the more hardcore Marvel fanboys will feel a rush of excitement from this but honestly, I think that the studio is going to have to do a lot more to save their quickly drowning show than simply just introducing some C-list character played by a B-list actor.
I know that I’m being a bit harsh, but as someone who was really looking forward to Marvel’s venture into television, and then was incredibly letdown after the first handful of episodes, and hasn’t bothered watching since about episode 8, I really feel that something drastic has to be done if things are going to turn around. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that introducing Patton Oswalt as Eric Koenig is going to do the trick.
Tell us, what do you think Marvel has to do to save Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
