Though The Dark Knight Rises has been doing incredible at the box office, The Avengers recently closed out its run at an official gross of around $1.5 billion worldwide. With a sequel obviously on the way and Marvel Studios now as popular as ever, the sky is the limit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The next four films have been detailed for the upcoming big screen ventures, but could there in fact be a small screen effort that connects to the theatrical installments? That may actually be a reality as a new report claims perhaps a primetime effort is in the cards.

Deadline reports that Marvel and ABC are currently in very early talks about developing a live action primetime television series set in the world of The Avengers. The catch would be that it would not include any of the characters from the famous film, but would rather have a very loose connection to the superhero epic while tapping into Joss Whedon's themes that he introduced. The report has yet to be confirmed but judging how early in development the project is, it could easily fall through at this point.

The series is said to be still simply in the brainstorm stages and "a number of scenarios" have been explored, including a "high-concept cop show". Let's be honest: to see S.H.I.E.L.D. agents taking on various missions revolving some of Marvel's deepest mythology? It sounds like it could really work.

Of course this isn't the first Marvel live action series in the works between the company and ABC. An Incredible Hulk television show has been in the works for sometime now, and it was mentioend earlier this year that the project could eventually find its way to a series order as early as Fall 2013. A new writer is currently being sought out for the project, with no substantial developments so far.

There's no word yet whether or not the Avengers-connected series could gain traction, but we'll keep you posted as it develops.

What do you think? Would you like to see a type of series connected to the MCU? Let us know either in the comments below, or tweet us @FilmThrasher on Twitter!