Cobie Smulders told Comic-Con that she’s officially joining Joss Whedon’s new ABC series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..” Published reports say she will reprise her role as Maria Hill from the Marvel Comic superhero movie “The Avengers,” also directed by Whedon. So far she’s just doing a cameo in the pilot, because she’s still under contract for “How I Met Your Mother,: but she’s more than happy to go undercover when needed. And the 20th Century Fox Television-produced “How I Met Your Mother” is in its ninth and last season anyway.

In a statement Cobie Smulders said, "I wanted very much to have Cobie in the pilot because as much as anyone else, she IS S.H.I.E.L.D.. She's cool and commanding and has the dry humor that plays so well with Clark's [Gregg]. Also, if she's in it, I get to hang out with Cobie."

It also looks like Smulders wouldn’t mind hanging with Joss Whedon. She told Comic-Con "Joss Whedon is a genius, and any opportunity that I have to say words that he has written, I will take. ... I love Clark and want to be a part of it, but we'll see."

“S.H.I.E.L.D.” is Whedon’s first TV series since “Dollhouse,” which starred Eliza Dushku as a programmed spy.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.” stands for for Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. It is based on Marvel Comics' secret intelligence organization that’s been ongoing at the comic. The agents include such superheroes as Iron Man, Captain America and The Ultimates. The secret undercover group was introduced in the 1960s. The military law-enforcement agency's moniker stands, which also has evolved over time in the comics.

When last we saw Cobie Smulders character, Agent Hill, it was in the 2012 blockbuster movie “Avengers.” Cobie Smulders already signed the papers to do it again in the upcoming movie “Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” There are rumors that she might also be seen the sequel to Joss Whedon's “Avengers.”

Cobie Smulders is the second “Avengers” actor to put on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Clark Gregg sign on back in October when he said he’d reprise his “Avengers” role as Agent Phil Coulson, although Coulson died in “Avengers.”

"Joss Whedon is a genius, and any opportunity that I have to say words that he has written, I will take. ... I love Clark and want to be a part of it, but we'll see."

S.H.I.E.L.D. will air Tuesdays in the fall.

 by Tony Sokol