Overview

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a hugely popular action and adventure TV show that is known for airing on the ABC network and has kept up momentum for an impressive seven seasons.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is also known simply as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it is part of Marvel Cinematic Universe. It acknowledges many features of this universe in order to fit in from a continuity perspective. As a result, it has become one of the most popular shows on TV today.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was created by Joss and Jed Whedon with Maurissa Tancharoen for ABC. It is based on the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization in the original Marvel comic books. S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

Premise

In the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the show follows an agent named Phil Coulson. In essence, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s role in this first instalment is to investigate Project Centipede – who have been secretly supporting a terrorist group.

As the show continues over the course of its seven seasons, fans will notice a number of connections with the Marvel world. Without spoiling too much, Agent Coulson has to take on new missions after the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Marvel movie Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Cast and characters

The main character in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the aforementioned Phil Coulson. Played by Clark Greg, he appears in both film and TV in this storyline from the Marvel Universe. Meanwhile, Melinda May is played by Ming-Na Wen. She is known for being an ace pilot and weapon’s expert in S.H.I.E.L.D.

Brett Dalton plays Grant Ward, who is one of the main enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. Professionally, he is an agent for the rival terrorist group Hydra. Notably, he is a black ops specialist.

 Additionally, Chloe Bennett plays Daisy Johnson. She is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who has the ability to create earthquakes.

Many of these characters have superhero alter-egos. For example, Daisy Johnson is also known as Quake, and Grant Ward is also referred to as Hive.

These aren’t the only characters in the series, though. Here’s who else you can expect to see as you watch:

• Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge)
• Lance Hunter (Nick Blood)
• Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki)
• Mack MacKenzie (Henry Simmons)
• Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell)

Filming locations

As with many other television shows and movies, filming for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took place in and around the city of Los Angeles, California. Additional scenes were also filmed in the nearby location of Culver City, CA.

Furthermore, there have been a number of on-location episodes or scenes in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that have required travel to international locations such as Paris, France and Stockholm, Sweden.

Trailer

There are plenty of different trailers available to view online for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fortunately, there is one available for each season. The most viewed of these on Youtube is called Official Trailer 1. This has a huge number of views – to be precise, over 11million at the time of writing. After it was posted on Marvel’s official page, it shows how hotly anticipated the show was when it was first announced. Indeed, for many, it did not disappoint when episodes began to air.

Production

When The Walt Disney Company first purchased Marvel Entertainment back in 2009, they announced that they would set up a Marvel Television department which would be responsible for the creation of a number of TV shows based in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

A number of different ideas were considered when the concept for Marvel’s first TV show was on the cards. The situation heated up when Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers movies, became involved.

The pilot, which was made for ABC, was written and directed by Joss. Meanwhile, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen joined him in script-writing roles.

The show became hugely popular and is one of the station’s most successful shows to date. The good news is that it continues to be renewed season on season. That said, the most recent seventh season is said to be the last for the show.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has a considerable budget behind it, and a lot has been spent on special effects. It has some of the best effects of any TV show, making it easily comparable to many motion pictures. The team of experienced writers and additional crew members have helped make Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. one of the most popular television shows over the last decade or so.

Episodes and reception

The first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was aired in September 2013. It gained an impressive 12.12 million viewers in America at this time, with an average viewership of 8.31 million. While viewing figures have continued to fall over the years, it still has a solid following.

There have been seven seasons of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Each season – up until the fifth one – had 22 episodes each. The final two seasons (6th and 7th) had 13 episodes each.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D gained a lot of critical praise and was received well when it first came out. While ratings may have fallen, seasons which followed the popular first one have still received overall reviews which are positive from critics.

Notably, the seventh season received 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It has never dropped below the first season’s 88% on that site. Interestingly, while the first season received the most views, it is not considered to be the best by critics and reviewers.

Many critics praised the show for how well it connected itself with Marvel’s films, most notably Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Impressively, the events which take place in the movie significantly impact the plot of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. over the course of season one and two of the show.

Perhaps even more impressively, the show has also been popular amongst comic book and Marvel fans. Furthermore, it has introduced a number of different characters from the comic books that had not previously been seen on television or in film.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been fortunate enough to win a number of different awards, including a Critic’s Choice Television Award. It has been responsible for a number of other television spin-offs, like Marvel’s Most Wanted and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot.