At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, I got to talk to actor Mark Sheppard (currently on Supernatural as Crowley, though you may have seen him on many other shows: Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Leverage, 24, Warehouse 13 … just to name a few. Three years ago I’d met up with Mark at SDCC, when he was at a signing booth with his son. At that time he’d kinda-sorta hinted he hoped to be included in the then-upcoming Avengers movie, when I asked if he was going to be working with Joss Whedon anytime again soon. Being that I apparently like to beat a dead horse, I asked Sheppard about it again at the following SDCC. Mark didn’t appear in the movie, though we may never know if he was ever really vying for a part in it.

Yet that horse still looked like it needed another beating.

This year I asked Mark what new we’d be seeing him in, seeing as Leverage was over and Warehouse 13 (where, yes, his character died) is ending. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., perhaps? Watch the video for his answer.

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First of all, don’t get all on me because I didn’t behave like a good little Whedon-ite and line up for the first showing of The Cabin in the Woods at the local theater, when it was released in April — or, better yet, flew to SxSW in March to see it early. A trip to a theater for me these days is such a sad rarity, but we won’t get into that right now. The point is, I finally caught Joss and Drew’s horror film collaboration last weekend. While it was one hell of a great trip, my only complaint would be the very final scene — I was looking for a little more.

What struck me throughout the film was watching Dollhouse‘s Fran Kranz as burnout — and destroyer of all life on Earth — Marty, once again reciting lines put to paper by Joss Whedon. But what was different this time was that this character was more of what I wanted out of Dollhouse‘s Topher.

In one way, this is a good thing. I’ve learned that it wasn’t at all the performance Fran Kranz gave to his Dollhouse character that made him less likable and funny, but was instead the material given to him. It’s likely that a show like Dollhouse wasn’t ever meant to have a Xander-like pot-head character amidst what was meant to be a more serious show than Buffy. Perhaps that’s where Dollhouse ultimately lost its way. Joss has an incredibly strong and rather unique sense of humor that I love, and that shows through in most things he produces. However, when you’re not given enough opportunities to allow for that kind of humor — like with Dollhouse — an overly-comical character like Cabin‘s Marty just wouldn’t quite fit.

Kranz is involved in another Joss production, Much Ado About Nothing, along with a whole bunch of other actors Whedon’s worked with before. It’s good to see Joss regularly recognizes and reuses great talent, so I’m hoping he’ll have a place for Kranz in any future television series he might have planned. Like, maybe as Agent Leo Fitz in a S.H.I.E.L.D. series? Could that sort of humor work in a show about The Avengers? Definitely.

Fran Kranz + Joss Whedon = A good thing. Though let’s stick with the material that makes that formula shine.

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