AGENTS OF SHIELD has come a long way since its first season. From being your run of the mill freak of the week television show to being a meaningful part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, AGENTS OF SHIELD has made its mark.
Now, moving into the show’s third season SHIELD looks to bring more of the MCU to the forefront. It looks like there are a few ways the show intends to do that.
Last season saw the release of all the Inhuman mist chemical being put on store shelves inside of vitamins. So naturally, there are going to be a lot of unsuspecting people getting powers. The increase of a larger Inhuman population is going to cause a lot of problems. Because not only is SHIELD after all these Inhumans — to protect and neutralize them from doing bad things — but so is a new branch of the government called the Advanced Threat Containment Unit (ATCU). This is led by a mysterious, unnamed woman who looks to control the powers of the Inhumans.
At the same time there are plenty of other Inhumans looking to take control of their kind. An Inhuman named Lash (above image) will also serve as a villainous force for SHIELD as he looks to judge those transformed into Inhumans. He wishes to see if they’re worthy of their new abilities.
And don't forget about Agent Ward. At the end of the last season he looked to reforming HYDRA. There isn’t much info about where he’s headed, except that Ward will be transforming into a full on villain this season instead of the double crossing, alliance shifting, character he was last season.
Besides the various villains SHIELD will be facing off against, there are some other mysteries they’ll be handling. One major mystery is what happened to Agent Simmons. At the end of the Season 2 the she was sucked up by a Kree artifact. Where did she go? Is she still alive? If so, what happened to her? All of these questions, and more, are on the mind of Agent Fitz when the season begins.
There’s a bit of a time jump — no idea how far — but by the time Season 3 opens up everyone but Fitz believes Simmons is gone. They’ve given up hope on finding her. Now, Simmons is in all the promotional material for the show so I imagine she’s going to return by the end of the opener. But there is no doubt plenty of mystery as to what happened to her while she was away is present.
Lastly, we left the second season with the announcement Coulson is putting together the Secret Warriors, led by Skye/Daisy/Quake. She’ll have fully adopted her true name, Daisy, and so all the characters will refer to her as Daisy from now on.
In terms of the Secret Warriors, the first two members will be Daisy and Mack. Due to Mack's encounters with alien technology he’s naturally suspicious of all of it. He’s going to be partnered with Daisy in order to make sure everything is done by the books. As the season goes on we’ll no doubt have more characters come into the Secret Warriors as well as unannounced characters who will be appearing throughout the season.
There’s a lot to look forward to in the third season of AGENTS OF SHIELD. And while the last two seasons have crossed over with some of the movies, this season is unique in the way that there are no Marvel movies being released during its season. The closest we get is CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. So if anything we may see some hints of larger MCU connections toward the end of Season 3. But for the most part SHIELD will be left on its own and I think it has plenty of material to deal with.
Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer