When Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered, it brought several brand new characters to the screen. Phil Coulson made the leap from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, but his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were mostly new creations. Melinda May, Grant Ward, Jemma Simmons, and Leo Fitz were all created for the series.

Iain de Caestecker made his MCU debut as Fitz, a physicist, engineer, and inventor who never met a piece of machinery he couldn’t figure out. When the character moved into Marvel comics, artists modeled Fitz’s appearance after the actor. He’s since appeared in the comic series S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which both allowed the TV character to meet some of the powered individuals that will never appear in the show. As a result, there’s a lot about his character some TV fans might not know.

Fitz Visited Antarctica With Scarlet Witch

Though the television series hasn’t paid a visit to the world’s southernmost continent, the comics have. Fitz visited Antarctica with fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Melinda May and their ally Scarlet Witch.

The trio travelled together because they were charged with protecting Wiccan. Ethan Slaughter had been targeting the world’s most powerful sorcerers with magic bullets, and Wiccan was in danger. They were tracking the magic bullets aimed at him. Of course, they discovered Ethan Slaughter wasn’t working alone after they made the trip, but they did manage to stop the manufacturing of those bullets.

Dormammu Possessed Fitz

Just when Fitz and company thought they’d saved the sorcerers of the world from one magical issue, they encountered another. The demonic entity Dormammu began targeting new beings to become part of his mindless army. Fitz wound up under his sway.

As it turned out, Dormammu possessed people based on their intelligence. Those with a higher level of intelligence were some of the first to fall prey to his attack on their minds. Fitz was one of the first ones to be turned. The possession caused him to attack Scarlet Witch and his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to find a way to contain him. He wasn’t cured of the possession until after Dormammu was defeated.

He Angled For A Relationship With Melinda May

On the television series Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., there’s really been no one else for Fitz except Jemma Simmons. It took his mind being in a virtual world where she was eliminated for him to end up with someone else. In the comics, that’s another matter entirely.

He did have a scientific partnership with Jemma, but she wasn’t the teammate he was interested in. Instead, he repeatedly hit on Melinda May. He even asked her out during a sparring session. Of course, that could be because his role in one particular comic book arc appeared to be modeled after Grant Ward’s on the television series. Ward, like Fitz, also got close to May.

Fitz Was A Triple Agent

In addition to trying to get close to May, Fitz was discovered as a traitor within S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics. He set up May and Bobbi Morse, allowing them to walk into a trap.

When Maria Hill hired someone to find the mole, she chose the assassin Elektra. That didn’t exactly go well for Fitz. Elektra quickly discovered that he was passing information on to General Strakovsky. Of course, what Hill didn’t know, because she also didn’t trust Coulson, was that Fitz was doing it under Coulson’s orders. He was in place as a “mole” to gain the General’s trust and get intelligence for Coulson, who didn’t trust all of his S.H.I.E.L.D. superiors. When Fitz was discovered, everyone believed him to be a traitor, and he went on the run until he and Coulson could get their job done and be reinstated by S.H.I.E.L.D.

He Spent Some Time In A Cage On Asgard

One of the final missions in the S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book series of 2015 involved Coulson taking his entire team on a mission to Asgard. While there, the team dressed to blend in, but it didn’t stop Fitz from running into trouble.

He tried to mingle with the locals and charm them while the rest of the team continued on the mission. Fitz ended up in a cage as a result. As Jemma pointed out to the team, he was so “charming,” he once made her nieces cry by convincing them Santa Clause did exist. Of course, his captivity didn’t last long as Coulson figured out that most of what was going on around them was all an illusion.

He Saw Other Universes With Howard The Duck

Asgard and Antarctica aren’t the only big trips Fitz made in the comics. He also got to do a little universe hopping. Fitz and Howard the Duck joined forces when a portal opened up on Earth. Due to a mistake by a S.H.I.E.L.D. technician, they ended up traveling to several new universes.

One of those was a place where all the major heroes looked like Howard. On the way home, Fitz got glimpses of several other universes, including one where he and teammate Jemma Simmons were an item.

There Are Multiple Copies Of His Brain

Working for S.H.I.E.L.D. can mean experiencing some very strange circumstances. One of those is having your brain copied. Over the course of the television series, Fitz has had his mind copied at least twice.

The first time occurred in season four when Fitz and Dr. Radcliffe worked on artificial intelligence and Life Model Decoys. Most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. staff had copies of their minds created, which were then implemented by AIDA in LMDs and in the Framework’s virtual reality programming. Season six saw Fitz’s mind copied again. The Chronicoms “downloaded” him and Jemma Simmons into a mindscape to help them solve a time travel problem. Though the two didn’t solve the problem, copies of their minds still exist in the Chronicom technology.

Fitz Accidentally Insulted Valkyrie

One of the first comic book missions fans got to see of Coulson’s TV team was in the 2015 S.H.I.E.L.D. series. Fitz, Simmons, May, and Coulson teamed up with the Black Knight and Valkyrie to track down Heimdall.

While they thought Heimdall was in trouble with a group of adversaries, it turned out that a strange piece of rock had infected him. Before they all got down to the saving the day part of the story, however, Fitz attempted to introduce himself to their new allies. Since he didn’t know who they were, his first question was whether or not Valkyrie was the new Thor. It didn’t go over well with her and she treated him coldly for the rest of the mission.

He’s Not The Youngest Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Throughout the course of the television series, especially in season one, fans frequently heard about the accomplishments of Fitz. One of those included him being the youngest graduate of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. He completed the required work in record time.

Technically, however, Fitz isn’t the youngest graduate out of the Academy. He and Simmons graduated the program together. They paired up for work at the Academy, and have been by one another’s side ever since. Jemma Simmons, however, is almost a month younger than Fitz, making her officially the youngest graduate of the Academy, with Fitz a close second.

Iain De Caestecker’s Mother Played Fitz’s Mother

Fitz’s mother has been mentioned a lot in the television series. When he speaks about his family, the conversation usually revolves around her doing her best with him as a kid. She has never appeared on the show in a speaking role. She did, however, appear in a photograph.

The photographed used to show Fitz as a kid with his mother was actually a real one. In it, a young De Caestecker posed with his real life mother. It’s likely that if the character appears on the show in the future, an actress would be brought in to play the role instead.

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