Agents of SHIELD should be renewed for Season 6 on principle alone. Its cancellation would leave a giant irreplaceable hole in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Avengers: Infinity War may be the biggest comic book movie ever. The scope is huge, the number of powered characters is unprecedented, the stakes are unmatched. This universe needs little guys who move invisibly through it, providing a level of suspense and mystery. Will we ever see Coulson, Iron Man and Nick Fury together on the big screen again? Those three characters essentially created the MCU as we know it.
Agents of SHIELD is so important to the Marvel Universe because it makes the world feel multidimensional. SHIELD is like the breadcrumbs that hold together a good Italian meatball. Without SHIELD, the MCU would be a dense sphere of meat. The cozy yet flashy nooks and crannies of the Marvel Universe over on Netflix, aka “the sauce in this equation,” wouldn’t have a good meal to drench itself over. Look, what I’m trying to say is, I can’t imagine an MCU without SHIELD that would taste good.
The only reason I’ve come to articulate my feelings about a world without SHIELD via meatball analogies is the concerning statements from ABC executive Channing Dungey at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour. According to TV Line, she’s “cautiously optimistic” about a renewal.
“It’s always hard at this point in January to know, because some of it is also dependent on your new development and how you feel about those things, so that’s why it’s really hard at the top of the year to know exactly what’s going to happen," she said in regards to SHIELD.
“The creativity this season, I honestly think, has been the strongest it’s ever been,” Dungey said. “We’ve been really excited about what the producers have been talking about for the second half of the season. I’m really looking forward to hearing them come in and talk about what their ideas would be for Season 6, so we can make a better determination about whether we’re going to order another season or not.”
Jeph Loeb told Player.One at New York Comic Con he’s consistently impressed by Agents of SHIELD, because not many shows improve with age. The series even adapted a new pod format to separate the twenty-plus episodes in a season into bite-size sections. The Marvel TV head also said there’s huge things in store for the 100th episode airing this spring.
All of this to say there are many reasons to be optimistic about a renewal, despite the series’ low ratings. We weren’t expecting SHIELD to be renewed last year, but it was. Fingers crossed Marvel and ABC executives will save the iconic series once again.
