While the World Security Council feature in
Marvel's The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s relationship with the United States government isn't touched upon and is seemingly left intentionally murky. As it turns out, this was a major problem for the organisation which usually works with the makers of films such as Joss Whedon's superhero esemble.
"We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it," Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, told
Wired.
"To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything with the film."
Despite the fact that
The Avengers features military aircraft on the Helicarrier and during key scenes in the film, these were in fact digitally inserted and not provided by the US military (a common occurrence in the likes of the
Transformers trilogy for example). The Defence Department are obviously extremely conscious of the way they are portrayed in films such as this one and simply couldn't cooperate when an ambiguous organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D is involved.
"It just got to the point where it didn’t make any sense," adds Strub, explaining why
The Avengers couldn't assemble alongside the US military. However, they did allow the filmmakers to shoot Humvees for some of the later battle scenes.
STARRING:
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Ramanoff/Black Widow
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
RELEASE DATE: Out Now!