It’s a testament to Clark Gregg’s performance and Joss Whedon’s writing that one of the most beloved characters in The Avengers isn’t even a superhero at all, but Agent Coulson.  The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent returns in grand fashion this fall with his own ABC series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but with movement building on the Avengers sequel, fans have been wondering whether Coulson will be involved in the feature film follow-up.  Whedon essentially blew the roof off of Comic-Con this weekend when he stepped out at the very end of Marvel’s panel to announce the title of The Avengers 2, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and during a recent interview he admitted that Coulson might not be a part of the film.  Hit the jump for more.

Speaking with Associated Press (via CS), Whedon was asked whether Coulson could return for Age of Ultron:

“He could. Right now it's not something I'm pursuing because I have so much going on in Avengers 2. Finding out that Coulson is alive would be an entire B story. And I already have too much movie. That's better than the other thing.”

Whedon went on to talk about leaving enough story for both the TV and movie sides of the Marvel universe, specifically speaking about the prospect of Samuel L. Jackson appearing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:

“But we also have the movies and we have TV and we need to make sure there’s some crossover, but not so much that people go, ‘Well, I don’t need to see that movie. I saw it on TV.’ If we do that [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige is going to come after me with a pitchfork.”

Filming on The Avengers: Age of Ultron doesn’t begin until next February or March so there’s still some time for the script to change, but as of now it sounds like Coulson will not be popping up in the sequel.  It's understandable to leave Coulson out, because in addition to building on the characters that we already know in Ultron, Whedon will be introducing a number of new additions.  It's all good, though, because Coulson does have his very own freaking TV show.