Marvel Studios helped create Agents of SHIELD accidentally through the Marvel One-Shots. After the incredible success of The Avengers in 2012 and Phil Coulson's surprise death, fans began a campaign to show their support for bringing the SHIELD agent back from the dead. Those calls were answered with the announcement of Agents of SHIELD, the ABC Marvel series focusing on a small group of SHIELD agents led by Clark Gregg. The series aired for seven seasons after it debuted in 2013, but it was never acknowledged by the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

While Marvel Studios is now fully committed to telling stories on the small screen through Disney+, Agents of SHIELD was the first show made by Marvel TV that was said to be connected to the movies. However, Marvel Studios had no involvement with the show and, at the time, was focused on a different type of non-movie content. 2011 saw them debut the first MCU shorts known as Marvel One-Shots, which featured Phil Coulson. The One-Shots went on to tell a story about SHIELD trying to acquire Chitauri technology in Item 47 and about the prison life for Trevor Slattery after Iron Man 3 in All Hail the King.

Related: A Canceled Marvel One-Shot Almost Showed Coulson's Funeral

Fans have only recently seen the One-Shots have an impact on the MCU, with Slattery's return in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, it turns out that they played a part in Agents of SHIELD's origin. Marvel Studios co-president and producer Louis D'Esposito revealed in The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Item 47 directly led to the creation of Agents of SHIELD. D'Esposito, who directed the Item 47 One-Shot, says that after they showed the short to Disney CEO Bob Iger, he suggested that it would make a great TV show and inspired the idea for ABC's show.

"It was a lot of work. We did it in four days. We're very proud of it. When we showed it to Bob Iger, he said, 'You know... this would be a great television show.' And so it was that kernel idea of the 'fixers' in Item 47 that ended up inspiring the ABC TV show about secret, ground-level operatives, Agents of SHIELD."

Agents Of SHIELD S1E12 The Magical Place

Marvel Studios was very clearly not directly involved in making the show, and it often acts as though Agents of SHIELD doesn't even exist. That's what makes the MCU's role in making the show happen all the more ironic. It's still possible that Agents of SHIELD would've been made if Item 47 never happened, but fans now know the role it played in the show's origin. It also makes the decision to bring Jasper Sitwell and Felix Blake to the show after they got a bit more of the spotlight in the One-Shot that inspired Coulson's series.

Knowing that the One-Shots inspired Agents of SHIELD also makes the MCU's relationship with Agent Carter stand out even more. Hayley Atwell's ABC series was also made after a successful One-Shot. Even though the One-Shot and ABC series don't lineup exactly, Marvel Studios was directly involved in both. Marvel even acknowledged Agent Carter in a sense by using James D'Arcy as Jarvis in Avengers: Endgame. So far, Agents of SHIELD hasn't received similar acknowledgment, allowing debates about the TV show's place in MCU canon to continue.

More: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Is Still Incredibly Popular

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