Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.


Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an American television series created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen for ABC based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., a peacekeeping and spy agency in a world of superheroes. The series was the first to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it acknowledges the continuity of the franchise's films and other television series. It was produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Mutant Enemy Productions, with Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell serving as showrunners.
The series stars Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, reprising his role from the film series, alongside Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge. Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, Luke Mitchell, John Hannah, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward joined in later seasons. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents deal with various unusual cases and enemies, including Hydra, Inhumans, Life Model Decoys, alien species such as the Kree and Chronicoms, and time travel. Several episodes directly cross over with MCU films or other television series, notably Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which significantly affected the series in its first season, and Agent Carter, from which series regular Enver Gjokaj joined the cast for the seventh season. In addition to Gregg, other actors from throughout the MCU also appear in guest roles.
Joss Whedon, writer and director of the MCU film The Avengers, began developing a S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot in August 2012. Gregg was confirmed to reprise his role that October, and the series was officially picked up by ABC in May 2013. The series attempted to replicate the production value of the MCU films on a broadcast television budget while also having to work within the constraints of the MCU that were dictated by Marvel Studios and the films. Prosthetic makeup was created by Glenn Hetrick's Optic Nerve Studios, while Legacy Effects contributed other practical effects. Composer Bear McCreary recorded each episode's score with a full orchestra, and the visual effects for the series were created by several different vendors and have been nominated for multiple awards.
The series premiered on ABC in the United States on September 24, 2013, and concluded with a two-part series finale on August 12, 2020, with 136 episodes broadcast over seven seasons. After starting the first season with high ratings, the ratings began to drop. Ratings continued to fall with subsequent seasons, but were more consistent within each season, while reviews for all seasons were consistently positive. Several characters created for the series have since been introduced to the comic universe and other media. An online digital series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot, centered on Cordova-Buckley's Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, was released in December 2016 on ABC.com. Other spin-offs were planned but never materialized.

Premise

The first season follows S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson as he puts together a small team of agents to handle strange new cases. They investigate Project Centipede and its leader, "The Clairvoyant", eventually uncovering that the organization is backed by the terrorist group Hydra, which has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. In the second season, following the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Coulson becomes director of the organization and is tasked with rebuilding it while dealing with Hydra, a faction of anti-superhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and a newly-revealed superhuman race called the Inhumans.
In the third season, Coulson begins a secret mission to assemble the Secret Warriors, a team of Inhumans, as Hydra restores its ancient Inhuman leader Hive to power. After the defeat of Hive and Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D. is made a legitimate organization once again with the signing of the Sokovia Accords. In the fourth season, Coulson returns to being a field agent so S.H.I.E.L.D. can have a public leader, and is tasked with tracking down more enhanced people, including Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider. In addition, Agent Leo Fitz and Holden Radcliffe complete their work on the Life Model Decoy and Framework virtual reality projects.
The fifth season sees Coulson and members of his team abducted to the space station Lighthouse in the year 2091, where they must try to save the remnants of humanity while figuring out how to get home. After returning to the present, where they are labeled fugitives, Coulson and his team work to prevent the future that they saw. They succeed in defeating a Gravitonium-powered Glenn Talbot, but Coulson dies due to his interactions with Ghost Rider in the previous season.
In the sixth season, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are divided into two groups: one heads to space to find Fitz, who is lost following the last season's time-traveling, while the other remains on Earth to face a team of mercenaries led by Sarge, a man that looks just like Coulson. The seventh and final season finds the team, including a Life Model Decoy of Coulson, jumping throughout time to prevent the Chronicoms from establishing Earth as their new home, Chronyca-3, and eradicating S.H.I.E.L.D. from history.

Episodes

Cast and characters

  • Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson and Sarge / Pachakutiq:
Coulson is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and later becomes the organization's director. In April 2013, Gregg agreed to join the series after hearing creator Joss Whedon's explanation for Coulson's resurrection, following the character's death in The Avengers, which he called "fascinating" and "true to the world of the comics". Gregg approached Coulson's promotion to director as getting his dream job, which at the same time forced the character to adopt a more level-headed attitude, like that of Nick Fury. After being possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance in the fourth season finale, the Kree blood that resurrected Coulson is burned away and he ultimately dies following the fifth-season finale. Gregg plays a new character, Sarge, in season six, and portrays a Chronicom-enhanced Life Model Decoy version of Coulson in season seven.
Joss Whedon had the character, a S.H.I.E.L.D. ace pilot and weapons expert, nicknamed "the Cavalry", and originally listed with the name Agent Althea Rice on casting sheets, "rolling around in his head" for a long time. Wen was given some backstory for the character to prepare, but was not told how she gained her reputation; with May's past revealed in "Melinda", Wen called it "devastating... To have learned what she had to do, for the good of the many... I can understand why it would traumatize her so much and cause her to retreat." Wen called May "unconventionally maternal", and said that it is her relationship with Coulson that makes her stay at S.H.I.E.L.D., despite her past.
Ward is a Hydra agent who poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. black ops specialist. From the conception of the series it was decided that he would be a traitor. Jed Whedon explained that they wanted to have "infiltration based on betrayal" on a small scale to represent the same thing happening on a massive scale, and to make the Hydra revelation more personal for the characters. Dalton felt that Ward was always more loyal to his Hydra superior John Garrett than to Hydra itself, and that he would become more of a wildcard after Garrett's death, though still an antagonist to S.H.I.E.L.D. Ward is killed by Coulson in season three, and his body is possessed by an ancient Inhuman, Hive. Hive is killed in the season three finale. Dalton returned to the series in its fourth season to portray Ward in the virtual reality Framework, where he is Johnson's boyfriend. Austin Lyon portrays a young Ward.
  • Chloe Bennet as Skye / Daisy Johnson / Quake:
An Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with the ability to manipulate vibrations and create earthquakes. The character of Skye was always intended to become the MCU version of Johnson, having consequences for the character's relationships with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, especially Coulson. Bennet felt that the character was someone who would wear her heart on her sleeve while having some control over her emotions. Wen noted that the character evolves from being "anti-establishment into suddenly being someone who wants to create an establishment that would help" the Inhumans. In the third season she no longer goes by "Skye" and gains the public name "Quake".
  • Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz:
An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who specializes in engineering, especially weapons technology. De Caestecker described the character as "quite passionate about what he does" but not emotionally intelligent. Fitz has a close relationship with Simmons; De Caestecker says they "just kind of fit each other in a very weird way". The character sustains brain injuries at the end of the first season. The writers researched brain trauma with doctors and experts before approaching it in the series. De Caestecker did his own research as well, feeling it is "something that should never be trivialized. It's a real and serious thing... we just have to constantly be respectful towards it."
  • Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons:
A S.H.I.E.L.D. biochemist who specializes in life sciences. Henstridge described her character as "intelligent and focused and curious...she's got a wonderful relationship with Fitz. They kind of bounce off each other." As Fitz and Simmons begin to spend time apart during the series, Henstridge noted that it "brings a whole new dynamic just to them as characters" since they have been nearly inseparable since first meeting. On the harsher side of Simmons seen in later seasons, Henstridge noted that the character has "always been very mathematical in a way". Simmons is "profoundly" changed after being trapped on the planet Maveth for six months.
  • Nick Blood as Lance Hunter:
A mercenary before agreeing to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Blood described Hunter as someone who "doesn't bow down to the etiquette of the S.H.I.E.L.D. hierarchy". He later elaborated that the character feels very independent, so would probably not want to admit no longer feeling like an outsider. Also, "he doesn't have too much respect for authority and titles...If Coulson does something he respects, that's all good. If he doesn't, he's going to say something." On Hunter's on-again, off-again relationship with Bobbi Morse, Blood said, "there is a lot of truth in it of those relationships you have where it's kind of, 'can't live with each other, can't kill each other'".
  • Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse:
Hunter's ex-wife and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who spent time undercover within Hydra. Palicki was approached by the showrunners specifically for the part during season two. Palicki already had martial arts and gun training but had to learn to use the character's signature arnis sticks; she noted similarities between Morse's fighting style and that of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow from the MCU films. Showrunner Jeffrey Bell said the character is more loyal to an idea than anything else, so what may seem in the short term as a betrayal by her is usually for what she sees as the greater good.
  • Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie:
A S.H.I.E.L.D. mechanic with a distrust of the alien and superhuman. Simmons said the character is more worried about contributing in his own way and getting his job done away from the field. Mack does not like violence, but does "what he has to do". Mack reveals in the third season that he relies on his "faith", implying that he is a Christian. Dee Hogan of The Mary Sue described this as "a refreshingly positive portrayal of people of faith, as Mack demonstrates the quiet confidence and love rather than the aggression and bigotry that's so often associated with it". Mack becomes the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in season six.
  • Luke Mitchell as Lincoln Campbell:
An Inhuman with the ability to manipulate electrical charges. The character was introduced because the series already featured "a guy with no eyes" and "a woman who now is covered in thorns" but, like the X-Men, there are also Inhumans who are "just attractive people with powers", and so Campbell represents them in the series. Campbell dies in the third-season finale, making him the "Fallen Agent" that the series had been teasing for the entire second half of that season. The decision was made because the producers did not want "a body count show, but it is a real world with real stakes".
  • John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe:
A transhumanist who believes in the improvement of humanity through enhancement. Radcliffe initially worked with Hive before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., where he begins work on transferring his artificial intelligence AIDA to a Life Model Decoy, an old S.H.I.E.L.D. project.
  • Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez:
A Colombian Inhuman who can move at super speed for a beat of her heart, before returning to the point she started from. She reluctantly joins S.H.I.E.L.D. and becomes a part of the Secret Warriors, eventually growing close to Mack, who gives her the nickname "Yo-Yo". When first portraying the character, Cordova-Buckley smiled whenever Rodriguez was about to use her abilities, to show an adrenaline rush and the feeling of having such power. After positive fan responses to this, the actress morphed this trait into a more mischievous personality for the character.
  • Jeff Ward as Deke Shaw: A "roguish scavenger" on the Lighthouse space station in the year 2091, who returns to the present with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and learns he is the grandson of Fitz and Simmons.