ABC Renews Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. For a 7th Season, But A Key Character Could Be Leaving The Show

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for season five of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been renewed for a seventh season ahead of its sixth season premiere next summer. While 2018 has seen the demise of popular Marvel shows like Iron Fist and Luke Cage, the ABC show has retained a devoted fan following over the years. Both season 6 and 7 will have 13-episode orders, and will presumably be filmed back-to-back.

ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said of the series, “I feel the season we just had was creatively the strongest yet. We don’t plan it as a final season. The show has a loyal passionate base. It does incredibly well in delayed viewing.” While Agents doesn’t earn high same-day ratings, it’s a very popular show in on-demand viewing.

In fact, despite existing on the cancellation bubble for years now, Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is by the far Marvel’s most popular on-demand series. According to Parrot Analytics, it’s Marvel Television’s strongest brand worldwide, ranking in the top 0.03 percent of in-demand TV shows, beating out other genre shows like Supergirl, Arrow and Fear the Walking Dead.

The show’s popularity has continued even as the series diverges from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, paving its own path and relying less on the events of the blockbuster films to tell their own unique stories. It also helps that unlike Netflix, ABC is owned by Disney, so the series remains under the company’s umbrella.

But Agents may be returning without one of their main characters. Clark Gregg is conspicuously absent from the cast list, with many people speculating that season six will be Agent Coulson’s last. The end of season five saw the beloved agent finding out he was dying, and resolving to step down from the agency and retire in Tahiti. Fans of the show know that “Tahiti” is also code for the secret laboratory that brought Coulson back from the dead, so his future remains to be seen.

Coulson is already set to return to the MCU in Captain Marvel, which takes place in the 90’s. Gregg will be digitally de-aged alongside Samuel L. Jackson in the film.

Are you watching Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.? What do you want to see happen in season six?

(via Deadline, image: ABC)

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