Warning: Contains spoilers for Agents of SHIELD's season 5 finale 'The End'.
Until just days before it aired, Agents of SHIELD's season five finale looked like marking the end of the show, and the showrunners certainly prepared for it that way.
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We were told in the weeks leading up to it that it would prove to be a "satisfying" finale, making us feel that it wouldn't feature THAT moment from Avengers: Infinity War – and so it proved, with the showrunners explaining just why it wasn't included in the show.
But the last-minute season-six renewal provides its own problems, even without pesky Thanos getting in on the act, leaving us wondering just where it can go.
In the finale, Daisy stopped Graviton successfully, preventing the bleak future the team found themselves in at the start of season four, but it wasn't without its downside as she had to take the Centipede Serum. This meant there wasn't any left to cure Phil Coulson, who has been dying slowly from his original Avengers injury, following his deal with Ghost Rider.
On borrowed time, he decided to leave with Melinda May and go to Tahiti, a fitting final resting place as it's the location of his visions back in season one, following his resurrection. The showrunners told EW that they always knew the show would visit Tahiti "since episode one".
"Our big mystery in episode one was, 'Never been to Tahiti,'" Jed Whedon explained. "He doesn't know, and he can never know. And here he is, finding some sort of peace on that beach. We love that image and we were solid on it all the way."
So with this arc completed, does that mean season six won't feature Coulson?
"My understanding is that Phil Coulson is no longer alive," confirmed actor Clark Gregg, although the showrunners weren't quite as definitive.
"What we do think is that there's an emotional impact with everything that happened this season and we would never wanna undercut that," Whedon outlined. "That being said, our show's founded on a man who had been killed in the movies, and Clark Gregg is the foundation upon which our show is built."
It would certainly feel cheap for Coulson to make a miraculous recovery in season six after the season-five finale hinged on the choice to save him or let him die. With ABC giving the show a limited run of 13 episodes, there's a possibility season six will mark the end of the show – so with Mack installed as new SHIELD leader, it wouldn't be the worst thing if Coulson didn't return.
But if that proves to be the case, there is another thread that season six could focus on from the season-five finale.
Coulson might not have died on screen, but the team were hit with the tragic loss of Leo Fitz – or at least one version of him. See, he wasn't transported to the future with the team at the start of season four and took the long route, so the Fitz that died was 'future' Fitz and there's still another Fitz out there in space in suspended animation on his way to help the team in the future.
This means that season six could focus on the search for Fitz and an added bonus would be that we might get another super-sweet FitzSimmons wedding, given it was actually 'future' Fitz that got married.
We can't see this lasting a 13-episode arc, though, and a lot could depend on how Avengers 4 solves the Infinity Snap issue, especially as it's been confirmed that season six won't arrive until after that movie hits cinemas.
The Marvel world as we know it could be irrevocably changed by then and as the show definitely takes place in the MCU, any changes that happen in Avengers 4 will be reflected in Agents of SHIELD. In that sense, it's helpful that season five ended in such a neat fashion because season six can act as a soft reboot – one that perhaps doesn't involve Coulson at all.
We'll riot if May's not involved, though.
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD airs on ABC in the US and on E4 in the UK. Avengers: Infinity War is out now in the UK and the US. Book tickets now.
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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.
