Agents of SHIELD made its Hall H debut at San Diego Comic-Con this year, bringing the cast and producers to talk about Season 6 and preview its upcoming final Season 7.
Given the announcement just hours before the panel that Season 7 would be the last, the panel largely served as a retrospective for the show.
Executive producer Jeph Loeb moderated the panel and was joined on stage by actors Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward, along with executive producers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Jeff Bell.
It was a bittersweet panel as executive producer Maurissa Tancharoen revealed the cast did their final table read this past week and were in the middle of filming the final episode.
In addition to the cast sharing their memories and anecdotes, the audience saw sizzle reels of the first five seasons.
At the top of the panel, Clark Gregg acknowledged the #CoulsonLives movement as part of the reason the show got off the ground to begin with.
After that first season, producer Jeff Bell says the show beat the sophomore slump with great new characters additions like Mack, Bobbi and Hunter and adding in Skye’s journey to being inhuman.
Henry Simmons didn’t expect Mack to become such an important character, let alone director of SHIELD, and admits he didn’t know anything about the show coming in but was excited when they kept him on the show.
Though Chloe Bennet joked that Skye’s emotional transformation scene was made easier to film by the fact it was a frustrating shoot so the tears came easier.
Ming-Na Wen gave credit to Mark Kolpack and the visual effects team for their integral work in elevating the show.
Season Four provided an interesting turn for the show with the framework and Aida. The cast saw a new side of Iain De Caestecker who admitted it was strange to not be filming scenes with Elizabeth Henstridge while playing Leopold Fitz.
And finally, with the Season 5 sizzle reel, we’re introduced to Deke (Jeff Ward).
Originally auditioning for the one episode role of Virgil, Jeff Ward impressed so much at the table read they gave him the role of Deke which continued to expand throughout the season.
Despite being the newest member of the cast, Ward expressed his love for his castmates and thanked them for accepting him into their family.
During the fan Q&A which Jeph Loeb tried to limit to “yes or no” questions, fans wanted to know a lot about what to expect in the seventh season as well as some answers on this season. Whether FitzSimmons gets married again or Daisy reads Coulson’s letter, we’ll have to wait and find out.
But the cast all replied with a resounding yes when asked if Season 7 will be the best season of Agents of SHIELD yet.
Stay tuned for more San Diego Comic-Con coverage all week from The Marvel Report.
Agents of SHIELD airs Fridays on ABC.