Everyone knows that all good things must come to an end, and it would seem as if that time is fast-approaching for Marvel's AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Ahead of the show's San Diego Comic-Con 2019 Hall H panel, it's been announced that Marvel's secret agent series will be ending after its seventh and final season on ABC. Later today, Jeff Loeb will join cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Jeff Ward for what will be the first few measures of Marvel's swan song for the long-running superspy fan-favorite program. Also set to join Loeb and the aforementioned cast members for the panel are executive producers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon and Jeff Bell.
“When you know that’s what you’re doing, you can take greater risks, of life and death,” Marvel TV boss Jeff Loeb told Deadline in an exclusive interview. "Season 6 ends really delightfully. That’s all I can say," Loeb continued. "Going into Season 7, when you know you only have 13 more stories, you really do get a chance to see what that writers’ room is going to do when they can do anything. It was the best kind of creative situation."
Loeb was then pressed for more info, seeing as many changes are on the horizon for Marvel TV, and the option to transfer shows over to the upcoming Disney+ streaming service is most certainly there:
"Well, the bitter side is nobody ever wants anything to end, but it’s going to be amazing, and here’s the best news: Season 6 isn’t over, and you’ve seen none of Season 7. That’s the celebration, there’s still more. It’s not as though we’re going to walk off the stage and say goodbye, you’re never going to see another one of these new stories again. You have to see how this ends, you have to," said Loeb.
As their talk continued, Loeb spoke about Marvel wanting to end the series on a high note as well as on their own terms:
"The simplest answer is so that we can end on our terms, really," Loeb remarked.
"How many shows do you know that just suddenly ended, and you feel like, but wait a minute, there was more. Yes, in the chronology of this is we thought Season 5 was the end. If you go back and you look at the end of that season, it is written that way. Actually, the last episode of that season is called “The End.” Honestly, we thought we were turning out the lights and going home when we got a call from ABC that said, the material is so strong, do you think you have another season, do you think you have another 13 because we sort of like this idea of doing it again."
Loeb then elaborated on bringing the show back from the dead, with purpose:
"Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and Jeff Bell, who have been there from the very beginning, went away and came back and said, we have a cool idea. That cool idea became Season 6. The show started to come in, then about halfway through that season we get another call from ABC’s Channing Dungey, who is a big fan of the show, super supportive, and she says, how about a Season 7?"
As word of the show's seventh season being its last settles in, one can't help but wonder about how fans attending today's Hall H panel will react to the news. When asked about plans for the event, and how he thinks Marvel zombies will take the news, Loeb said:
"When we first sat down and started talking about what we wanted to do at San Diego and doing it this way just made sense."
"You know, we have a number of shows that are starting up, a number of shows that are going to be appearing towards the end of the same year or next year. So who benefits the most in that forum, and the fans so love that cast, particularly when you’re now in your sixth season, your seventh season. Like I said, what we really wanted to do was have a celebration. To have an opportunity for us to be able to say to the fans, let’s take a journey, and that will lead to the acknowledgement that we’re wrapping it up after seven seasons."
Loeb then finalized his thoughts on the matter by saying:
"Look, every single show has a fan, who doesn’t understand why it has to go away. By the same token, the sweetness, which is it will always be there. It’s like a great novel, it’s always on the shelf, you can take it down, interact with it. You know that’s the joy now the world of streaming, which is you can watch the whole thing for the rest of your life all at once and not have to really look around for it, and so 136 hours of being able to enjoy these stories over and over and over again."
Needless to say, there are still plenty of surprises coming our way from Marvel Studios. We're currently standing at the beginnings of a whole new Phase of features from the studio, with plenty of Disney+ and Hulu content to come. If you think about it, we were once promised that everything would change after the release of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, and well, that time is now.
In the interest on not aping Deadline's entire interview, I highly recommend that you read the rest of it for yourself here. It's packed with insights into the show's remaining episodes as well as a bit of history as to how Marvel arrived at letting the action-packed series go.
Also, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new info coming from the show's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Com later this afternoon.