Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant

Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant is a short film set after the events of The Incredible Hulk. Two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Phil Coulson and Jasper Sitwell, meet in a New Mexico restaurant, where Coulson passes on unwelcome news: the World Security Council wants Emil Blonsky released from custody so he can join the Avengers Initiative. Nick Fury has no wish to see that happen, but the Council's demand cannot simply be ignored. The two agents therefore work out a way to make the transfer fall through, using an intermediary whose involvement they expect will sour the arrangement.

The short was directed by Leythum, following his earlier Marvel One-Shot about Thor's hammer the same year, from a screenplay by Eric Pearson. Clark Gregg and Maximiliano Hernández play the two agents, with brief archive appearances by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, and Deborah Knox as a waitress. Kevin Feige produced alongside Mick Ebeling and Danelle Hand for Marvel Studios and the Ebeling Group.

Running four minutes, the film was released in September 2011 and serves as a connective piece between the studio's features. Audiences have received it modestly: it holds a rating of 6.3 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 12,000 votes, and the same score on TMDB from a much smaller base of about 655 votes.