Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Deserves A Sixth Season

It’s true that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ratings this season haven’t been great. In truth, that may have little to do with the show’s quality. ABC scheduled Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 in what many regard as a “graveyard slot,” Friday at 9pm. ABC claimed they were aiming to turn this slot into “a destination for our fantasy and science fiction fans,” but it doesn’t seem to have worked. Back in May 2017, Dungey pointed to two shows that were moving to Fridays as part of this strategy, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Once Upon A Time. The latter, sadly, has already been confirmed as canceled.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually in a stronger position than Once Upon A Time. Although live ratings aren’t the best, the series performs well in terms of DVR. That suggests S.H.I.E.L.D. still has a strong fan-base who are keen to watch the series - they just aren’t interested in tuning in for the Friday 9pm slot. What’s more, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a strong international seller for ABC. The series airs in 15 countries and is particularly popular in Europe.

In terms of quality, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually Marvel’s best-reviewed TV show on Rotten Tomatoes. Over the course of over 100 episodes, the series has built up a mythology all of its own, embracing everything from Ghost Rider to the Inhumans. After a faltering start, it’s now a true superhero TV series, starring Clark Gregg’s beloved Agent Coulson and Chloe Bennet’s Daisy Johnson. S.H.I.E.L.D. now deserves to be seen as one of Marvel’s strongest offerings, and it’s more than demonstrated the potential for a sixth season.

Every Agents of SHIELD Season Totally Reinvents The Dynamic

It’s important to stress that, more than any other superhero show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is constantly reinventing itself. Just look at some of the major twists:

  • Season 1 was turned on its head by the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., completely transforming the initial spy series. Grant Ward’s betrayal was a core part of this. The Inhumans plot in season 2 saw the series begin to transition, from a show starring humans in a superhuman world, to one where superheroes stood side-by-side with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It also expanded Marvel’s mythology beyond the movies for the first time. Season 3 saw Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. dabble with high-concept sci-fi for the first time, in the phenomenal episode “4,722 Hours.” Marvel divided season 4 into three pods, each of which was functionally different. The move to a later timeslot allowed the series to develop a fresh aesthetic, darker than ever before. The first half of season 5 was pure sci-fi, with Coulson and his team trapped in a dystopian future.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a shapeshifter of a superhero show, always changing into another form, always toying with a fresh and new idea. It’s not that the series doesn’t have an identity of its own; rather, it’s that the identity comes from the central characters. Setting these characters against different threats and concepts gives Marvel an admirable degree of flexibility. That means season 6 can’t be dismissed out of hand, simply because “there’s nothing left to do.”

Besides which, there is something left to do. Season 5 may be tying together a lot of plot threads from previous seasons, but one important thread remains.

Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Needs To Go Interdimensional

Back in season 1, S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced the concept of different dimensions - different planes of existence. The episode “Repairs” saw S.H.I.E.L.D. confronted with what seemed to be a ghost, but turned out to be a human trapped between two dimensions.

These weren’t dimensions in the “Multiverse” sense, though. Rather, they were planes of reality that sit on top of our own, coexisting with it. This is a concept Marvel Studios would go on to develop in 2016’s Doctor Strange, which explored the Mirror Realm and the Dark Dimension. In a thematic tie-in to Doctor Strange, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 revisited the concept. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team struggled to deal with the arcane science of the Darkhold, and at one point Coulson, Fitz and Ghost Rider were actually trapped on another plane of existence.

The season 4 finale, “World’s End,” expanded Marvel’s mythology once again. Robbie Reyes made a powerful claim: “The Earth is just one territory in a war that’s been going on forever.” The Ghost Rider was revealed to be a warrior who fought in what some fans have dubbed the “War in Heaven.” It may seem like a throwaway line of dialogue, but it actually opens up whole new vistas of the Marvel Universe. According to Robbie Reyes, a cosmic battle between good and evil rages across the dimensions. That’s surely a concept worthy of further development.

Could Alternate Dimensions Allow Stronger MCU Tie-Ins?

When Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first started, the series was essentially Marvel’s “tie-in” show. Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury and Jaimie Alexander’s Sif made cameos; there were explicit tie-in episodes for Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The last two seasons have seen S.H.I.E.L.D. abandon that approach, in favor of thematic ties. When Doctor Strange introduced the supernatural to the MCU, S.H.I.E.L.D. launched the “Ghost Rider” pod. With Marvel about to go cosmic in Avengers: Infinity War, S.H.I.E.L.D. took Coulson and his team to space. It’s true that these thematic ties haven’t created the same sense of inter-connectedness, but they’ve succeeded in giving the show room to breathe.

In the wake of Infinity War, the Marvel movies are clearly intending to explore other planes of existence. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel will explore the Quantum Realm, for example; set photos for Avengers 4 have suggested either time-travel or alternate timelines. Marvel Studios is clearly about to explore the Multiverse, and the “War in Heaven” plot would fit perfectly with that. It’s perhaps significant that Whedon, speaking at WonderCon, stressed that Infinity War will “open a new playground” for the show - perhaps the Multiverse?

As regards alternate universes, season 4’s Framework showed just how much mileage there is in these concepts. A Multiverse-based season would allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to truly explore the impact of Earth’s heroes. Imagine a world where the Avengers failed to defeat the Chitauri, where Malekith plunged the cosmos into darkness, or where Aldrich Killian killed the President. Meanwhile, if Coulson’s team were in another dimension, it would certainly resolve the nagging question that fans often raise: where is S.H.I.E.L.D. during the latest movie?

Mack was wrong; space wasn’t the “one thing [S.H.I.E.L.D.] haven’t done yet.” The showrunners of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may have created a satisfying conclusion, but there is still one loose plot thread that deserves to be developed. Season 6 could easily see the show reinvent itself yet again, plunging Coulson and his team into the wider Marvel Multiverse.

MORE: The History of Marvel’s Alternate Universes

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 continues Friday, April 6th with Inside Voices’ at 9pm on ABC.