Here's everything you need to know about Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season 6, including an earlier than expected release date.
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Agents of SHIELD season 6 is a go! ABC announced that it would be renewing its lone Marvel show for a sixth season of 13 episodes, rather than the usual 22-episode order it has gotten for previous seasons. The network has also renewed the show for a seventh season, but has not said if that will be the show's final outing. However, with the smaller episode order and the season 7 renewal being announced prior to the summer start of season 6, a wrap-up might be in store after a solid run.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Here's what we know about Agents of SHIELD season 6 so far.
Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Cast
With Coulson confirmed to be dead after the events of Season 5, leaving Mack as SHIELD’s new director (you can read more about that below), one may find the idea that Clark Gregg is set to return for Season 6 more than a little curious. However, in an interview with Marvel, Gregg teases that the character he’ll portray is not Coulson, but a mysterious role. Calling the experience “very strange,” Gregg explains:
“[The Coulson role] became a very familiar skin in a way, so to find myself playing this other, very mysterious person, who is not Phil Coulson – and the mystery of who that person is, and why he looks like that – is something they have done groundbreaking, wild stuff with, that I’m really lucky to play.”
However, that is not to say that Phil Coulson is permanently out of the picture. As Gregg also teases of his SHIELD agent, who evaded an onscreen death in 2012’s The Avengers, followed by his apparent disease-dealt demise on Agents of SHIELD:
"They used to say [Coulson is] the glue of the Marvel Universe. I now think he's the cockroach of the Marvel Universe."
Consequently, we still wonder if he'll be back as Coulson, and if so, how? Perhaps, as a Skrull Coulson doppelganger, dovetailing with the alien shapeshifters'Captain Marvel introduction?
...In non-Coulson casting news, Revenge of the Fans recently revealed that Agents of SHIELD season 6 will have a notable guest star in the form of Anthony Michael Hall. Nothing is known about his role yet, but that's typical of Marvel casting announcements. Also set to recur, interestingly, is Joel Stoffer as Enoch, who in this new timeline is still very much alive and waiting for Fitz to wake up out in space. Fan favorite Briana Venskus will also return as Agent Piper.
Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Trailer
This one gets a bit spoilery, so viewer beware! However, if you want to get a peek at Mack as the new director in Agents of SHIELD season 6 (see Story section below), take a look. The ending may surprise you!
Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Release Date
We'll be getting 13 episodes, but it's going to be a long wait. The Agents of SHIELD Season 6 premiere won't happen until summer 2019. The sharp eyed folks at MCU Exchange noticed a "May 2019" release month at the end of a Valentine's Day highlights reel.
We'll update this when we have a more exact Agents of SHIELD Season 6 premiere date, but for now, we're wondering if it might be after Memorial Day to allow Avengers 4 to take center stage first and clear up that controversial ending to Avengers: Infinity War. No word yet on whether it will stay on Friday nights or move once again.
Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Story
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While the amount of time left until the summer 2019 arrival of Agents of SHIELD Season 6 might make fans feel like entering a Fitz-like state of frozen hibernation to skip to the premiere, the series has released a much-needed morsel in the form of a preview pic. Arriving via TVLine, the Season 6 image shows longtime team member Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie embracing the role that he took on at the end of Season 5, replacing the ailing Coulson as the new director of SHIELD.
read more: Agents of SHIELD Season 6 and the Future of the Marvel TV Universe
As Henry Simmons, who has played Mack on the series since the 2014 launch of Season 2, explains to the outlet of his character’s Season 6 arc:
“Personally, I love the challenge of being the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mack has worked side-by-side with the people he now leads, and that works to his advantage — he’s one of them.” Adding, “But the one thing that can hinder Mack’s ability to lead is his reluctance to put the people he loves in the line of danger. As a result, this may lead to Mack’s toughest decision as director. What sacrifices will be made?”
It will certainly be interesting to see the state of the agency in Agents of SHIELD Season 6, since, as the picture implies, the organization appears to be on the way back to restoring its fully-staffed high-tech glory after the events of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier forced the team to operate in a more spartan existence from the underground.
Meanwhile, there are still plans to develop Marvel shows for ABC. “We continue to be very excited with what they’re doing with SHIELD,” Dungey had said at the time. “We’ve tried a few things that haven’t worked out as well as we would’ve liked. We developed a couple things this season that we don’t think are going to end up going forward, so we’re going to look really carefully about what we do next, because the idea for us is to come up with something that works very well for both Marvel and ABC, so we’re going to continue to try there.”
So far, ABC hasn't had much luck with Marvel outside of Agents of SHIELD, though. A proposed spinoff, Marvel's Most Wanted, never got past the pilot stage, and there has long been talk of John Ridley developing a mystery Marvel show for the network, but that appears to have stalled entirely, with no mention of it in quite some time. Hopefully it's still alive. There was talk of a Damage Control TV series, too, but that may also be dead.
It sounds like they'll have to content themselves with Agents of SHIELD season 6 (and the recently confirmed season 7) until they can figure it all out. Of course, the big question is how will the events of Avengers: Infinity War impact Agents of SHIELD season 6, right? Well, we're glad you asked, because we explain it all right here!
Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter (@mikescifi). Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.