Three years ago, it looked like we were going to finally see Wonder Woman come out of television retirement and save the day in David E. Kelley's NBC reboot of the DC franchise. With those hopes came a new pilot and a new actress in the role, the latter of which was being filled by Friday Night Lights veteran Adrianne Palicki. But as quickly as those hopes came, they were dashed as the show was never picked up for production, nor was it even burned off as a TV movie, as per tradition for a pilot of such stature. It looks like Marvel saw something that NBC didn't, as they've recently cast Palicki in their TV flagship, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, as Barbara “Mockingbird” Morse.
TVLine scooped the story, which answers a recent question we had about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's list of Marvel characters being added to the show's roster. Barbara Morse, aka “Mockingbird,” has existed in Marvel's comic canon since 1971, but she didn't go by the call sign Mockingbird until her 1980's run. That might not sound important now, but if Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D is meant to feed into/overlap with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then this could cause complications with the Black Widow/Hawkeye romance, seeing as the two avian themed agents supposedly fall in love and get married in that same 1980 run.
Besides her romantic entanglements, Dr. Barbara Morse has a phD in Biology, as well as the same sort of physical prowess as Natasha Romanoff. Though, to be fair, Dr. Morse prefers batons or a bo-staff instead of shock bracelets. Speaking of mysteries and complications, we've also found out who's going to be playing Skye's father this season; and you're going to want to grab a cup of some damned fine coffee before you read any further. Kyle Maclachlan, Agent Dale Cooper himself, is jumping on board to help figure out just why she's so special to S.H.I.E.L.D. Either that, or he'll start speaking in cryptic riddles of varying audio speeds, and ultimately turn out to be a baddie all the long. It's Marvel, it could go either way folks.
I have to say, this is definitely the sort of casting I expect (and love) to see coming out of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D camp. Kyle Maclachlan has high class extraterrestrial (Asgardian?) written all over him, and Adrianne Palicki has finally been given a chance to play in the superhero sandbox everyone's talking about. Funny thing is, Joss Whedon was rejected from the same sandbox she tried to get into, as his Wonder Woman film was torpedoed a couple of years before her series also fell under the waves.
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D return for duty on September 23rd.
