Ja. Coulson dog.
Joss svarade detta vid 2014 SXSW. Från den här artikeln (betona min):
Acknowledging the presence of seemingly-deceased Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) on the panel – Gregg plays Leonato in the Much Ado ensemble – Whedon tried to explain how the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent returns from the dead.
“I’ll tell you guys this, Heimlich,” Whedon joked, before effectively clamming up about the show. “I can’t talk about it,” he admitted, but said that he did bring Coulson back from the dead for the ABC drama. “Yes. For realsies.”
Inom tv-servern
Agent Hill säger att Coulson dog i 8 sekunder (även om han hävdar 40) och att Fury faked en full död för att förena Avengers. Coulson skickades för att återhämta sig på Tahiti.
Men ...
A short exchange between Agent Hill and Shepherd Book Dr. Streiten leads viewers to believe that there is still more to Coulson's "death" and "recovery" than Coulson or the viewer knows.
I säsong 1, avsnitt 3: (tillgången)
A major point is made to demonstrate that Coulson has lost what should have been instinctive muscle memory when he is unable to take apart and reassemble a gun as quick as he normally could pre-impalement.
I säsong 1, avsnitt 11: (en magisk plats)
Dr. Streitan explains that Coulson had been dead for days and that his memories had been altered. After being revived (by some still unknown means), his memories are altered to restore him to something closer to his original pre-death personality.
Inom filmerna
Det är värt att notera att medan Coulson har återupplivats och lever och sparkar i Marvel Cinematic Universe, anser Whedon att han fortfarande är död för filmerna och förklarar varför han inte har dykt upp i någon av MCU-filmerna sedan hans resa till Tahiti .
A lot of people come back in The Winter Soldier. It’s a grand Marvel tradition. Bucky was supposed to die. And the Coulson thing was, I think, a little anomalous just because that really came from the television division, which is sort of considered to be its own subsection of the Marvel universe. As far as the fiction of the movies, Coulson is dead.
Men eftersom Whedon har gått tillbaka från sin position som en av de främsta krafterna i det kreativa laget MCU, kan The Powers That Be ™ ändra detta.