With the sixth season of Agents of SHIELD currently in full swing, one may have thought the show’s Comic-Con panel wouldn’t be that huge of a deal. Then, a few hours before the panel, it was confirmed that the next season of the show, season seven, would be its last.
That topic, of course, was on everyone’s minds as Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, and many others, took the Hall H stage Thursday afternoon. Executive producer Jed Whedon revealed that while season six is currently airing right now, they are also shooting the very last episode of the show. The panel was very emotional. “The dragons look amazing,” Gregg joked.
“Today is really a celebration of the stories we told and an ending all of you deserve...because Agents of SHIELD fans rock,” said executive producer Jeph Loeb.
To celebrate, long sizzle reels for each of the seasons was screened with the cast and crew sharing a few memories. For season one, Clark Gregg talked about how, at the time, he still couldn’t believe he got a spin-off show after dying in The Avengers. Watching the footage now, he said he could see the birth pangs and the start of lifelong friendships. For season two, Chloe Bennet told the story of how uncomfortable it was for her to shoot the scene where was it was finally revealed she was an Inhuman. In season three, Elizabeth Henstridge’s character Simmons is stranded alone in an alternate dimension, and she talked about how the shoot was difficult and she missed all of her friends.
The whole panel then reveled in how much stuff happened in season four (Ghost Rider, Agents of HYDRA, etc.). Natalia Cordova-Buckley talked about how special it was to shoot the final scene of the season where Mack lost his child and Iain De Caestecker, who was the big bad that season, talked about how sad he was not to have any scenes with Henstridge. That led to a little playful flirting between the on-screen lovebirds.
Jeff Ward, who plays the futuristic spaceman Deke, was introduced in season five. Apparently, he was originally cast in a very small role but the reaction to his character’s death in the first table read was so huge, and everyone loved him so much, he was written back onto the show. Gregg then said he was surprised to find out about Sarge, his new character because he thought Coulson’s ending was so poetic.
To end the panel, there was a quick lighting round of question from the audience. Jed Whedon said there may be a comic book of the characters’ adventures in space, that these stories take place before Avengers: Endgame (though Whedon said it in a super quick blow-off kind of way), that they don’t know if any of their characters could appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that, yes, season 7 will be the most awesome season of the show yet.
“Its really hard to believe that we’re at the end, said EP Maurissa Tancharoen. “I’m so proud of everyone up here and to all of [the fans]. Obviously, without all of [the fans] we wouldn’t have made it this far.”
Agents of SHIELD airs Friday nights on ABC.
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