This is all speculation though, but who doesn’t like daydreaming about the possibilities of a comic book TV show?
A New Director
The most interesting thing about the time jump we got at the end of Season 3 was that Phil Coulson was no longer the Director of SHIELD. There are several reasons why this could be. The first and most likely is that Coulson stepped down. After all, he was the one who let Hive get back to Earth in a sense, and he no doubt feels responsible for the death of Lincoln. The less likely answer is that the President stepped in and put someone else in charge. But that doesn’t really feel like the show to me.
The obvious choice for replacement director is May. We saw her take up positions of leadership throughout the show and as Coulson’s right hand, she makes the most logical sense. After all, she’s really the only character we didn’t hear anything about in the time jump. But she’s also the most boring choice because she’s the obvious one.
Instead, I would love to see someone like Talbot take over SHIELD. He and Coulson have reached something of an understanding as of late and I could see him playing director for the first few episodes — although, if I had my way, I’d love for Talbot to star in a Thunderbolts spinoff.
Maybe he put Fitz in charge. Fitz has really come a long way since the beginning of the show and his relationship with Coulson has strengthened due to their time on the Inhuman planet. It’s a long shot, but not entirely impossible.
Life Model Decoys (LMDs)
This one is weird. When the good ol’ doctor talked about the life model decoys, he did so in the context of Simmons’ and Fitz’s friends. “Maybe they didn’t have to die,” he said. I have to wonder how large of a part this will play into the next season. Will we be resurrecting characters like Lincoln in the form of a LMD? We could even see the return of Agent Triplett, who is one of the few regulars to fall during the course of the show.
Otherwise, it’s hard for me to see the impact this will have on the show. AGENTS OF SHIELD hasn’t killed off enough characters to make it seem like there are a bunch of people LMDs could “bring back from the dead.”
A Returning Couple?
They had a tearful goodbye part way through Season 3, but Bobbi and Hunter’s spinoff show pilot episode wasn’t picked up by ABC. So the dream is dead, as they say.
But doesn’t that free up those characters for a return? If they’re no longer working on a spinoff show, it stands to reason that they could find a way to write the characters back into the show. They were two fun characters that I would like to see back. I wouldn’t expect them back immediately, but if the writers really wanted them back the time jump might help to explain that really easily.
Daisy on the Run
It’s tough to see exactly why SHIELD is hunting Daisy. I doubt it’s because she’s gone rogue and has started purposely hurting “good people.” So I don’t think she’s turned into a villain. What I think could have happened, is that she’s started taking matters into her own hands.
She’s no longer to sit by and let SHIELD take its time and ring its hands over how to handle a situation. She’s taking the fight to the enemy and, perhaps, she’s a little less concerned with collateral damage than she should be.
My thought, and hope, is that the hunt for Daisy will not take up a significant amount of time in Season 4. I understand that the character went through a great deal of trauma in the end of the last season. But focusing on her as the primary goal distracts from the overall story of the fourth season. Which leads me to my next point…
A New Threat
With Hydra gone and the Inhumans dealt with, we will hopefully be moving on to a new and unique villain. I honestly don’t have the vast knowledge of Marvel’s catalog of villains, so to guess who it could be would be pointless. But SHIELD has been on and off with the quality of their villains, so I’m desperately hoping we get someone strong and that will create an interesting storyline for the fourth season.
Or even better yet, let’s get two villains in there. SHIELD has always worked best when it splits its storylines in half, working with two volumes so to speak. This allows them to tell a concise story without having to put in a ton of filler. It’s what they did with the second season and I would definitely like to see it again here.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
The MCU and SHIELD are at an interesting point in their respective lives. Because after DOCTOR STRANGE none of the upcoming Marvel Studios movies will align properly with SHIELD. DOCTOR STRANGE takes place “on Earth” and is going to be released on November 4; perfect for crossing over with SHIELD. But after that, well, it’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 in early 2017, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING in the summer 2017, and THOR: RAGNAROK in November 2017.
Guardians 2 isn’t going to crossover, obviously, and Ragnarok is supposed to take place almost entirely in the cosmos, so it might be a long time before we see AGENTS OF SHIELD and the MCU line up again. I’m talking at least a couple of years. Because the next earth based movie that lines up with when AGENTS OF SHIELD would be airing is BLACK PANTHER in February 2018. That’s if AGENTS OF SHIELD gets renewed for a fifth season as well (seems likely, but you never know).
Either way, there’s plenty going on in the world of Marvel and plans could always change. Release dates get shifted around, movies get pulled or added. Originally Spider-Man wasn’t part of the MCU Phase 3 announcement, then he was added. There was an INHUMANS movie, now there’s not. Which brings me to final point…
The Inhumans
Because of how Season 3 went down and now the lack of an INHUMANS movie on the schedules, one has to wonder where the major Inhuman characters will wind up. Will the show eventually be allowed to use characters like Medusa or Black Bolt? Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened.
It would be pretty amazing to see those characters on the show and I think they could add a lot of stature to the show. Basically they’d be Avenger level characters on the TV show and I think that would go a long way in drawing more people into the show. But only time will tell.
In fact, only time will tell for most of these things. Thankfully we may not have to wait too long for answers. SDCC is quickly approaching and we’re bound to hear a lot about Marvel’s plans for the next year. So stayed tuned for more info in the coming weeks!
Premiere Time and Date
Marvel Television has officially announced the premiere date and new time slot for AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 4. It's coming to ABC on September 20 at 10 p.m. Eastern.
San Diego Comic-Con International 2016
It is still unknown, as of the publishing of this post, if AGENTS OF SHIELD will have its own panel at SDCC in July, but it seems likely as Marvel TV has spent big money to "skin" a few trolleys right outside of the convention center — see image below and cue the assumptions that Ghost Rider might make an appearance on the show with that image of a fiery chain.
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
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