Is ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ in the MCU?
It's complicated.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s seven-season-long series chronicling the adventures of the agents protecting the Earth from alien threats and other weird occurrences, is now on Disney Plus! The series joins Daredevil, Defenders, and other MCU-adjacent shows that originally appeared on Netflix. Now that you can watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside other MCU content, though, you might be wondering if the series actually takes place within the MCU or not. After all, Marvel has licensed its characters and properties out to a lot of different studios over the years, and many films and series aren’t considered canon. Here’s what you need to know before you dive in!
Coulson’s Resurrection and MCU References
It’s really tough to argue that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t take place in the MCU.
The very first episode starts off with explicit references to the events of 2012’s The Avengers. We see shots of the Chitauri invasion of New York City and the Avengers themselves, and multiple characters reflect on how the old world ended once gods and aliens turned out to be real. One agent mentions the death of Phil Coulson, who gets stabbed by Loki in The Avengers, and when Coulson himself shows up, he explains that he didn’t really die, he was just almost dead, and Nick Fury saved his life so that he could star in his own spin-off show. (The full story is actually more complicated than that, but we won’t get into that right now. Let’s just say there’s more to Tahiti than meets the eye.)
The point is, the events of The Avengers are what kick off the series, and the narrative is pretty explicit about that. Guest appearances by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill further cement the show’s place within the MCU.
The pilot isn’t the only time the show references the events of the MCU, either. For example, in season 1, episode 15 (“Yes Men”), the Asgardian sorceress Lorelei turns up on Earth and starts hypnotizing men so that she can build an army. While S.H.I.E.L.D. is investigating, the Bifrost opens in front of them to reveal Jaime Alexander’s Lady Sif, straight out of the Thor franchise. Sif explains that Lorelei escaped from her prison cell in Asgard during the Dark Elf invasion and that Odin has charged Sif with bringing Lorelei back alive.
The invasion is a direct reference to the events of Thor: The Dark World, which came out in theaters a few months before the episode aired. Plus, the bit about being sent by Odin—complete with an eloquent speech about how Sif is sworn to serve her king—is a little Easter egg for Thor fans, who know that the Odin sitting on the throne is actually Loki in disguise. (Why did Loki want Lorelei alive, by the way? Was it just protocol, or was he planning something? Alas, that reference was probably just a throwaway line to explain why Sif was sent to Earth, so we’ll likely never know.)
The Blip and Other Inconsistencies
Of course, events in the official MCU and the S.H.I.E.L.D-verse don’t match up exactly, meaning that despite all the references, it may not take place in the same universe as the films and Disney Plus series.
One glaring inconsistency is the fact that the Blip, which is an earth-shattering event in the MCU, is completely ignored in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons 6 and 7. No characters get blipped, no one mentions anyone on Earth getting blipped, and life seems to go on as normal. Behind the scenes, this happened because Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. originally wasn’t renewed for season 6, and the writers for Endgame weren’t working with the writers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to establish a shared continuity. Onscreen, though, the decision to skirt around the Blip makes it look like the series suddenly doesn’t quite take place in the same reality anymore.
If you really want to dig deep, there are other clues that signal that the show isn’t considered part of the MCU. For example, Charles Murphy at Murphy’s Multiverse points out that, on the Disney Plus Marvel menu, if you go down to the list of properties in MCU timeline order, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is absent. The one-shot featuring Coulson is listed in the timeline, though.
There are other inconsistencies throughout the series, too. For example, the ancient grimoire called the Darkhold makes an appearance in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where it appears as a normal-ish looking volume. When the Darkhold shows up in WandaVision, though, it has a much more otherwordly nature, appearing out thin air and swirling with flames and black magic. Again, the practical reason behind the inconsistency is two sets of writers and crews who didn’t communicate with each other, but onscreen it suggests two different realities (or, at the very least, two different Darkholds.)
Finally, if you really want to dig deep, Alex Welch at Inverse points out that when Mobius is interrogating Loki in the first episode of Loki, he fails to mention that Coulson didn’t actually die when Loki stabbed him. It’s possible Mobius omitted that detail as an interrogation tactic, trying to make Loki feel guilty, but the scene does seem to treat Coulson’s death as final.
It’s Probably Just the Multiverse
So if Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kind of takes place in the MCU and kind of doesn’t, then where exactly does it take place?
The short answer, of course, is who cares? It’s a fun show! So it isn’t canon. Don’t think about it too much!
We Marvel fans love to overthink things, though, so the multiverse could be the solution that helps us sleep at night. Thanks to Sylvie putting a knife through the heart of He Who Remains, all potential Marvel-related realities can now be considered canon. If Sony’s Spider-Man characters and Fox’s X-Men can enter the MCU via Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be said to exist in a similar, but not identical, reality to the MCU.
Or, again, you could just not worry about it too much.
In any case, all seven seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are now streaming on Disney Plus, so have fun!
(featured image: ABC)
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