How Can the 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Cast Join the MCU?
BY GREGORY MYSOGLAND / COLLIDER
The series finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. presents a way to rectify continuity discrepancies with the MCU films and allows for the characters to be used in future Marvel projects.
Chloe Bennet's character, Quake, could potentially join S.W.O.R.D. and appear in cosmic-focused Marvel projects like Thor, Captain Marvel, or Guardians of the Galaxy.
Phil Coulson and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could make appearances in supporting roles in future Earth-based projects, such as Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, or Armor Wars.
Before the blockbuster Disney+ series' or even Netflix’s Defenders saga, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first television series was Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. One of the franchise’s few forays into traditional broadcast TV, the series followed a team of agents from the titular organization, which had been featured throughout the MCU’s Phase 1 films, as they investigated and protected the world from super-powered entities and beings. At the beginning of its seven season run, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s narrative was closely connected to the MCU films. Several actors from the films reprised their roles in addition to series lead Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who had first appeared in the movies, and episodes that aired close to theatrical releases often featured connections to the films’ plots.
But none of the later films made much effort to reciprocate and reference S.H.I.E.L.D., and as the years went by the series began to focus more on developing its own detailed mythology, leading some viewers to believe that its continuity and that of the films could no longer be considered the same. The series finale featured a plot twist that could potentially be used to rectify these discrepancies and concluded most of the characters’ stories in ways that made it possible for them to be used in later Marvel projects. Between this and the return of several other Marvel TV characters like Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, and even Anson Mount’s Black Bolt, many fans are hoping to see some of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s heroes again, and there are several upcoming projects in which appearances from one or more of them would make sense.
It's worth noting that the nature of the Multiverse Saga creates almost unlimited potential for stories involving S.H.I.E.L.D. characters. Any of the actors from the series could be brought back to play variants of their characters from different timelines or universes, much as Patrick Stewart and the other actors who made up the Illuminati in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did. This would allow future projects to feature the S.H.I.E.L.D. cast and characters, which have accrued their own passionate fans, without having to take into account the complicated backstories and histories they have from the series. That said, the finale did offer a way to keep the exact versions of the characters that viewers are familiar with canon to the MCU’s main universe.