It’s two weeks until Agents of SHIELD returns to television and fans have been eagerly awaiting the series’s return. Last season’s cliffhanger left Coulson’s team in a particular predicament — they seem to be stranded in space. The season’s final stinger saw Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson staring out into the stars in a gorgeous shot from visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack before proclaiming that it was “time to get back to work.” A new trailer dropped that shows off a bit more while leaving quite a bit up in the air for fans worried about their favorite agents. There are more clues, there are a number of new characters who will be making appearances as well as some new posters dropped by Chloe Bennet, but the overall arc of the season remains unclear.
We back. pic.twitter.com/QYXwDXq3Ta
— Chloe Bennet (@chloebennet) November 16, 2017
Dissection is part of the fun of Agents of SHIELD, however, and it’s always yielded some interesting results. The cast and crew are very generous with fans, especially when it comes to secrets and fan favorite characters. Fans even have the first episode synopsis, but it doesn’t reveal much. After last season’s Ghost Rider arc, however, it’s pretty obvious they’ve got something super big up their sleeves. In that spirit, let’s count down just what the trailer has taught fans about the future of their favorite agents and the future of the series looking at just what we know, or think we know about Agents of SHIELD season 5.
1. Coulson and His Team Are Very Well Known.
The trailer opens with a character in awe of Clark Gregg. “It’s the legendary Phil Coulson” he exclaims. While that might make sense coming from one of the legions of Agents of SHIELD fans who helped bring the show back for a fifth season, it’s unusual to hear from someone out in space. Coulson is just as surprised. It’s intriguing to consider. Just how does this person, out in space, know who Coulson is? Does he have any connection to the shadowy figures who took them to space?
The internet has been abuzz with rumors. The biggest of which being that Coulson and his team are in the future. From those who saw the sneak preview footage at New York Comic Con to those who have been watching the trailer, Coulson being in the “future” seems to make sense. If someone has slipped whoever is in space a copy of seasons 1-4, they would know just how far the team has come. For a show that has made a practice of time jumps, it would be the ultimate joke if they jumped all the way into the future, and were living in a post-apocalyptic version of the MCU at large.
It puts the team in a very precarious position. If they are in the future then it’s a future that’s post-Thanos, post whatever happens when Captain Marvel returns, and things don’t look good. If Coulson and his team are in the future, it’s going to be a future filled with spoilers for anyone hoping to go into Infinity War wholly and completely blind. If he’s in the future, then whoever or whatever is out there knows what happened with Thanos.
An alternative theory is that Coulson and his team have been observed by a second group who have heard stories of their exploits. It makes sense, Marvel’s Inhumans hinted at a larger threat in the MCU. If there are Inhuman refugees, perhaps they’re the reason that those people are out there. We know next to nothing about Inhumans outside of Attilan. If Daisy’s mother had contacted anyone out in the cosmos (which is possible, after all, season 3 saw us head into space, this just takes us deeper into space).
From the future to the idea that stories about Phil Coulson’s team have been spreading out beyond our cosmos, things are getting very interesting for Coulson and his team.