Note: Contains spoilers for Agents of SHIELD season six.
Not content with the Avengers jumping all over time, Agents of SHIELD delivered its own time-travel twist at the end of season six – and it could bring back Peggy Carter.
With most of the team busy defeating Phil Coulson lookalike Sarge and Izel to stop the end of the world, Fitz and Simmons were left facing a completely different threat back at SHIELD's base.
Intent on making Earth their new homeworld, the Chronicoms attacked the lighthouse and set off to destroy SHIELD throughout history. Luckily, friendly Chronicom Enoch saved FitzSimmons and said he could help, but not without changing the course of their lives forever... again.
The final scenes of the season saw Simmons pick up the rest of the team, including a severely wounded May, and head back in time to 1930s New York (1931 to be exact, going on the opening scene of season seven).
Oh, and Coulson is back (again), but this time as a Life Model Decoy as he's an expert in SHIELD history who can guide their way.
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You know who else would be a pretty good expert in SHIELD history? Peggy Carter.
After all, she was one of the three people, alongside Howard Stark and Chester Phillips, who founded the organisation, which was formed after the Strategic Scientific Reserve managed to defeat HYDRA in World War II.
The potential return of Peggy Carter in Agents of SHIELD's final season isn't just wish fulfilment on our part either.
Back in July, Ming-Na Wen posted pictures of the personalised bikes that the cast were given as wrap presents on her Instagram Stories. Fans quickly spotted that one of the bikes had a tag for Enver Gjokaj, who played Daniel Sousa on Agent Carter.
Sure, he also played a random cop in the first Avengers movie and the MCU also isn't against casting actors in different roles, but this would feel like an odd casting choice if he wasn't reprising his role as Sousa.
And if Sousa was to appear in Agents of SHIELD, then it would be even odder if Peggy wasn't there too.
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ABC/Marvel Studios Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. SEASON 5 [DVD] [2018]
![Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. SEASON 5 [DVD] [2018]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1568025341-51VUFWpcCXL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:* "Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. SEASON 5 [DVD] [2018]")
ABC/Marvel Studios Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. SEASON 5 [DVD] [2018]
The photo has disappeared from Ming-Na Wen's Instagram, but it's not clear if that's just because it was an Instagram Story (deleted automatically after 24 hours), or if she deleted it after realising what it revealed.
One issue is that the timelines don't quite match up.
The two seasons of Agent Carter were set in 1946 and 1947, so we don't know yet whether the SHIELD team will move from the 1930s.
However, co-showrunners Jed Whedon and Melissa Tancharoen have teased to EW that there will be timey-wimey adventures.
"I think we can say we're definitely going back there and that's where the adventure begins. Right now the Zephyr is a time machine," Whedon said, with Tancharoen adding: "And wouldn't it be fun to explore different time periods?"
So the team could easily find themselves in the mid-to-late 1940s once SHIELD had been formed, or just before if the Chronicoms think they can stop it before it even begins. Maybe they even target Peggy?
Hayley Atwell is closely linked to the MCU, with Peggy appearing in Avengers: Endgame and in the upcoming What If...? TV series, so it doesn't seem as though she'd have been against appearing in Agents of SHIELD.
She's been in it before too, appearing in two episodes of season two in flashbacks, but never interacting with the team.
With fans still mourning the loss of Agent Carter and a season three for that show unlikely, a story arc for Peggy in Agents of SHIELD could bring some closure to that show (and for the fans).
Perhaps it'll even manage to resolve that frustrating cliffhanger from the end of Agent Carter season two.
There's no guarantee it'll happen, of course, and there's been no official response to the set photos. All that means though is that we can continue to dream that it will actually happen.
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD airs on ABC in the US and on E4 in the UK, and will return for season 7 in 2020.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
