Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb has revealed that season 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. might not be the show’s last. AoS was the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first foray into television. The first season premiered on ABC in 2013. It was followed by Agent Carter and later Inhumans. Marvel’s TV division has only continued to expand since AoS began, building an entire network of shows on Netflix, and creating others for Hulu and Freeform too. There are also X-Men series currently airing on Fox and FX, though they aren’t part of the MCU.
It was previously believed that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would wrap up with season 5, but instead the series was renewed shortly before the finale last year. The fact that the 6th season would be 13 episodes, as opposed to the usual 22, led to speculation that those would be the final installments. However, AoS was renewed for a 7th outing before season 6 even began airing. With season 6 premiering May 10, the notion that there could be more seasons on the way after 7 is a surprising one. Even star Clark Gregg recently stated that the show’s 7th season would likely be its swan song.
Comic writer and current head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb revealed during a panel at WonderCon that contrary to popular opinion, season 7 might not be the last for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and teased a bit of what’s to come in season 6. He stated: “By the time you get to May 10th you will have nothing better to do than to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. knowing how the Avengers story ended in Endgame. So that should tell you, particularly when you saw today the One Year Later.” The “One Year Later” part of his statement refers to the fact AoS’s upcoming season will take place a year after the events of the 5th season finale. Loeb also said, “We’re not ending” in response to season 7 being the show’s last. Co-showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen explained, “We always think we’re going to end each season and being renewed is a bonus each year.”
Tancharoen’s statement makes a lot of sense when considering the fact that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is constantly being reinvented. The show does find itself on the verge of cancellation pretty much every year, but thus far, has managed to survive. Although the series viewership is often in question, AoS has maintained a loyal fanbase, and data even indicates that it’s Marvel’s most popular show around the world.
Loeb’s statement is an interesting one as well, because of how little Marvel TV has tied into the MCU in recent years. During AoS’s first couple of seasons, there were a lot of inter-universe connections between the television series and the films. However, as time went on, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. became much more of its own entity, with far fewer mentions of anything else that was going on in the MCU. Although certain season 5 events were set in motion due to Thanos’s imminent attack, the series ignored his reality-warping finger snap. So, it’s intriguing that Loeb spoke about the show potentially being affected by the way that Avengers: Endgame wraps up.
Although it premiered to middling reviews, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has only gotten better with each passing year. The fifth season was undeniably the show’s best, but definitely wrapped things up enough story-wise for the season finale to serve as a series finale if need be. Thankfully, that isn’t the case, and fans can expect to watch the lives of these characters unfold for another two years. If Loeb’s words turn out to be true, perhaps they can look forward to even more seasons as well.
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Source: Jeph Loeb
