'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Cast Tease Secret Warriors, Simmons Gunplay And More [Wondercon]
The cast of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were on a panel at WonderCon last weekend and spoke to the press afterwards. The tight-lipped stars of the Marvel show were able to preview some of the upcoming adventures of this corner of the MCU. Daisy Johnson will have some full Secret Warriors action sequences coming up, said actor Chloe Bennet.
"Fans will be thoroughly satisfied with some of the Secret Warrior action we have coming up," Bennet said. "It was some of my favorite stuff to shoot ever on this show because it's something that Daisy's wanted. I can't say how it ends in that it's not going to be like 'We're a team and this is how it is forever happy yay!' It's not necessarily going to be like that but there's a couple of really good comic book classic moments that we have with the team."
Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) is going to train Agent Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) for field work, firearms and all. "Well, they gave some of it away in the trailer that they just showed," Wen said. "It's her training Simmons to use a gun. I think the wonderful thing about May is that she really believes that even someone like Simmons has that inner strength and inner tenacity to be able to fend for herself and protect herself. So she's always there to guide and give her stoic advice."
Daisy also sees into the future, but Bennet won't reveal what she sees. "It's not good, and we start playing with time, illusion and whether you can change the future," Bennet said. "Different people on the team have different opinions on whether or not that's something you can do. It was a very emotional episode for me to shoot for sure."
This week, after the departure of Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), we're actually going to go home with Mack (Henry Simmons) and see some of the Mackenzie family. Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel television, previewed that story.
"One of the things that we have played a lot of is what you give up when you join S.H.I.E.L.D.," Loeb said. "Those personal connections are something that you have to give up because if people knew what you did, you would then become vulnerable and the people that you care about and that you love become vulnerable. So we've been very careful about revealing too much because one of the things is that we want to play the reality of what's happening for them. In many ways, being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is a lonely job. What Phil Coulson's been able to do is try to make it a place where you don't have that feeling where you need to go home. But we have seen, like in the story with him and the cellist, we have seen how heartbreaking that can be."
Simmons expanded on what Mack is looking for when he reconnects with his brother. "What the writers wanted to do is explore the other side of S.H.I.E.L.D. when you're not working," Simmons said. "Your personal history with your families, things of that nature. You're gone for a long time and then you have to come up with some poor excuse as to why. It causes strained relationships and that's what you see. Mack goes back because he's wounded, because Bobbi and Hunter left. I think he wants to repair some other relationships and I don't know if it really happens."
Meanwhile, Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) is going to have trouble controlling his powers. "We're going to dive right into that in the next few episodes," Mitchell said. "The next few episodes are my favorite episodes by far. I'll just say that."
That is only going to make Coulson (Clark Gregg) distrust Lincoln more. "He does get put through a lot of tests, doesn't he?" Mitchell continued. "That's the interesting thing that just when you think that he's passed the final test, there's another seven levels in there that just kind of come out of nowhere."
Gregg indicated that they may finally come to an understanding by the end of this season. "That becomes a big part of the episode that's on this coming week," Gregg said. "There's a wariness that Coulson has about Lincoln. It's funny, he's dealing with a guy who responds to his emotions. This guy wants to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but he questions his motives. How much of it is just to stay close to Daisy and how safe is he having a field agent with powers with a temper like that? It's ironic that Coulson is dealing with that when he's only at some point going to learn how much he has unleashed on the planet by his own response to his own emotions. I like that Coulson doesn't just give up on him right out of the gate, but seems interested in working with him, trying to help him get to a place where he can trust him."
Finally, Brett Dalton is still learning how to play Hive. When Hive took over Agent Ward's body, fortunately Dalton remained employed, but he's got a new character to play.
"Well, apparently Inhuman stuff doesn't really seem to work on him too well," Dalton said. "The guy with the paralyzing eyes doesn't seem to have any effect. And also that Giyera looks like he is totally under the control of this guy as well. We are going to see what that means. It seems like there is certainly a connection between him and other Inhumans. As our boy Luke keeps talking about, Lincoln, all of these Inhumans have a purpose, a part. They have their own function within a larger plan I guess. So I think we're starting to learn what that is. Whatever it is, it seems to involve many people."
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesday nights at 9PM on ABC.