Why Agents of SHIELD Went to Space in Season 5

Showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen open up about the reason they decided to explore space in Agents of SHIELD season 5. After years of dealing with extraterrestrial forces on Earth, Coulson, Daisy, Simmons and the rest of the team found themselves in an unknown setting following a cliffhanger season 4 finale. Since then, the team has gone through a series of ups and downs and even a wedding - plus a monumental 100th episode.

Discovering what is really happening and the new mission the agents have at hand has been fun to watch for viewers. Agents of SHIELD is able to offer a balanced narrative that involves the mandatory thrilling action sequences, some emotional bits, as well as humorous moments, mainly due to Mack's quips. Now that the season (and possibly series) is coming to a close, the show's EPs reveal what brought about this year's storyline.

Speaking at this year's WonderCon (via CinemaBlend), executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen looked back on pulling off the space- and future-set season 5 of Agents of SHIELD. Whedon explained what brought about the idea to send the team into space considering where they went for season 4. And while the show has always been rooted in sci-fi, watching the team slowly discover where they ended up somehow grounded the story.

Jed Whedon: Last year was a real kitchen sink year. We had a lot of stuff going on. We did alt world. We did Ghost Rider. We did LMDs. So we did two different versions of alternate versions of ourselves and so we were thinking 'Where can we go that's different.'

Maurissa Tancharoen: Mack's line sort of reflects what we were thinking in the writer's room. He turns to Coulson and goes 'We're in space. It's the one thing we haven't done yet.' So it was definitely an area that we had been contemplating for a while.

Whedon continued to share the creative process in executing the ambitious narrative for Agents of SHIELD season 5, explaining that after conceptualizing, telling the story is most challenging. But "as soon as we came up with that idea everybody kind of went 'Oh I see what that story is,' and we ran with that."

It will be interesting to see where Agents of SHIELD goes next considering the team has now gone to space and into the future. In that regard, they beat the big screen MCU in launching their Earth-bound characters to the cosmos, as well as pushing them forward to the future. If anything, given what Coulson and his team have gone through and what their current mission is, this season feels bigger and more significant than what the Avengers have had to deal with. Sure they have Thanos coming in Avengers: Infinity War, but the agents have been dealing with extraterrestrial beings for quite some time now. And yet, the movies continue to ignore what's been happening in the small screen.

Unfortunately, despite its bold storytelling, a solid group of characters and loyal viewers, the future of Agents of SHIELD is still in limbo. With only a handful of episodes left for season 5, the show has yet to be picked up by ABC for another year. Considering the reported quiet cancellation of Inhumans paired with the announcement that no new Marvel TV series will move forward at the Disney-owned network this year, it seemingly increased the chances Agents of SHIELD would be renewed. But that isn't necessarily the case. No matter what happens, the writers of the show are prepared to wrap up the series in this upcoming finale if Agents of SHIELD is canceled.

MORE: Captain Marvel Is Resurrecting Coulson – But Still Ignoring Agents of SHIELD

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 continues Friday, March 30th with ‘Rise and Shine’ at 9pm on ABC.

Source: CinemaBlend