Could Marvel finally be giving us the MCU crossover we’ve all waited for? It could finally be happening, it seems!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen its share of ups and downs over the last few years. Just as it looked like the franchise was unstoppable following the game-changing, box-office-dominating Avengers: Endgame, it has hit the skids and is no longer the consistent force that it once was.
Some of the reasons for Marvel's recent inconsistencies are beyond the MCU's control, like the pandemic, the 2024 Hollywood strikes, and parting ways with Jonathan Majors (which forced Marvel to drop Kang as the Multiverse Saga's next big villain). Although it appears as if it's back on track, there is still concern about the creative direction for the franchise as they build to Avengers: Doomsday.
In TV, the MCU has been making a lot of moves with their Disney+ shows. That includes reviving the Netflix Marvel shows with Daredevil: Born Again, whose second season will have Krysten Ritter reprising her role of Jessica Jones. Yet there’s one Marvel show that MCU fans have been waiting a while to see integrated into the franchise again and a new reports suggests that it might happen!
Could Agents of SHIELD be coming back to the MCU?
Among the Disney Plus projects in the works at Marvel is Vision Quest. It’s a followup to WandaVision and Agatha All Along as the newly reborn Vision (Paul Bettany) goes on a quest to understand himself. The show will boast the return of James Spader as the murderous Ultron with T’Nia Miller also starring as Jocasta, another android.
There’s not much else known about the plot for the show with the usual speculation on other Marvel characters popping in. However, in a new Q&A with fans (via The Cosmic Circus), Marvel insider Alex Perez was asked about Vision Quest and dropped the tantalizing hint that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans will celebrate a (albeit small) win.”
So, could this mean that we could see a cameo from a popular member of that team? The setup for a revival? Or should we be happy Marvel Studios may finally end up acknowledging Agents of SHIELD after all this time?
Why Agents of SHIELD shouldn’t be forgotten
Agents of SHIELD has always been a bit tricky for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When it premiered on ABC back in 2013, it looked like the first real TV show set in the MCU with Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson returning to life leading a team handling super-powered threats.
The show was linked to the movies with Lady Sif and really came to life when Captain America: The Winter Soldier revealed SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra. That led to the shocking twist of heroic Ward being a Hydra agent to betray the team.
Agents was also meant to be a lead-in for the planned Inhumans movie, introducing the Terrigen Mists with Skye becoming the super-powered Quake. However, that ended up being moot when Inhumans instead became a flop TV show.
As the years went on, Agents seemed more ignored by the Marvel movies, with barely any mention of SHIELD as an entity, much less the characters who appeared in it. It also had a bizarre dynamic of a passing reference to the movies but then nothing on the events of Avengers: Infinity War and after that it was basically just the characters doing their own thing.
Since the series finale in 2020, the show has continued to slip away from MCU continuity. It was even addressed in the show’s final season on how somehow they existed in a separate timeline from the MCU one (it’s complicated, to say the least). And this is likely due to the fact that it was produced by Marvel Television, which at the time was a completely separate entity from Marvel Studios. The studio has since restarted the Marvel Television brand, but this time it's an official arm of the MCU franchise, producing the MCU's Disney Plus shows. The name doesn't mean it's the exact same production company (it isn't), but it is worth noting that some of the characters who debuted under that original Marvel Television banner (like Daredevil and the other characters involved in the Netflix shows) are now canon to the MCU, so the same could potentially happen for Agents of SHIELD down the line.
It’s long past time Marvel addressed Agents of SHIELD again. It doesn’t have to be a full revival (although that would be great), but at least talk about what’s happened with SHIELD and whether it’s rebuilt itself or not. Having a cameo from Coulson, Daisy or May would be fun, and it would be awesome to see them involved in the Vision adventures.
It’s just amazing that a show that ran seven seasons and amassed a big cult audience has been virtually ignored by Marvel in the last five years. Daredevil: Born Again has proven that the MCU can use the former TV characters in the world of the MCU well, so it's long past time for Agents of SHIELD to get another shot in the MCU.
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