The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done a huge disservice to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Before WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and every other upcoming Disney+ series slated to be released, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was the first series with direct ties to the MCU. The ABC show — which lasted seven seasons and aired from 2013 to 2020 — starred Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson, who was resurrected following his death in The Avengers. However, after Marvel Television, which was once a separate branch run by Jeph Loeb, was folded into Marvel Studios under Kevin Feige, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. began feeling more like a distant memory, especially as all the previous Marvel shows not airing on Disney+ started getting cancelled. But, it wasn't until WandaVision that the ABC series pretty much became obsolete.
Set shortly following the events of 2012's The Avengers, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. saw Agent Phil Coulson recruit his own team to find and take care of 0-8-4s, or objects of unknown origins. The team — including Daisy Johnson (formerly Skye, aka Quake), Jemma Simmons, Leopold Fitz, Melinda May, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie — would go on to battle HYDRA, venture into space, time travel, partner with Ghost Rider, and face Hive, the Inhuman HYDRA worshipped.
The show's early seasons were most aligned with the MCU timeline, with Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders even appearing as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, respectively, at the end of season 1. However, the longer Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. went on, the more distanced it became from the MCU. This allowed its storytelling to become bolder and it seemed like there was nothing the series couldn't pull off, especially since it allowed the writers a lot more creative control. And, while the series wasn't as narratively beholden to the shared universe’s chronology as Marvel’s Disney+ shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was still considered a part of canon.
However, everything changed with the arrival of WandaVision, what with its use and changes to the Darkhold, an ancient book of spells that comes from hell and is made up of Dark Matter. The series establishes Agatha Harkness has been in possession of the Darkhold (likely for centuries), which essentially makes the storylines involving the book in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — and, to a lesser extent, The Runaways and Agent Carter, both of which existed under the Marvel TV banner before the merge — seem pointless. It’s unclear when Agatha actually obtained the Book of the Damned, but she did bring it with her to Westview, the small town the Scarlet Witch trapped in a hex. Regardless, Agatha having the book brings up a huge issue within continuity, a problem the MCU seems to be ignoring for now.
The ABC series has employed the Darkhold on several occasions and was the first MCU show to include it in the plot. Aida, an artificially intelligent life-model decoy who was corrupted by the powerful book, and Robbie Reyes, a mechanic bestowed with the power to transform into the demonic Ghost Rider, have all been involved in major storylines centering the Darkhold and its dangers. However, WandaVision’s version of the Darkhold, and the way it was used in the show, deviates greatly from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. WandaVision basically established a new canon, one that erases Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., fracturing the show’s connections to the MCU even further.
It’s been confirmed the Darkhold in WandaVision is the MCU version of the book, which implies Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer a part of the shared universe. This is frustrating for a number of reasons, primarily because S.H.I.E.L.D.’s storylines, characters, and history don’t get their due and aren’t referenced at all in the Disney+ series. It’s as though the new slate of MCU shows are taking things in an entirely new direction, one that largely ignores all of the series that came before it. Shows like Agent Carter and Runaways, both of which included storylines involving Dark Matter and the Darkhold, are effectively moot.
The MCU has forged a new path for itself with a slew of new Disney+ series, but its erasure of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is particularly disrespectful. The series introduced the Darkhold in live-action and was the first MCU project to utilize the Kree, a militaristic alien species, in a meaningful and effective way. In the films, the Kree first appeared in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, though it was in a minor capacity. The advanced aliens wouldn’t come into play again until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Captain Marvel. However, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had already laid the groundwork for how they operated and what their goals were long before then.
To ignore the show’s plots and all the development with regards to concepts and stories, involving aliens or otherwise, is a disservice to all the hard work it’s put in over the years. It’s also a disservice to fans of the show, who watched it diligently for seven years and appreciated all the effort and creativity the writers put into making even the most outlandish plots work. WandaVision and the remainder of Marvel’s Disney+ shows are rewriting the MCU’s history by starting over, thus sidestepping all the series that came before.
It stings knowing WandaVision could have referenced Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., connecting the two series through their use of the Darkhold. Instead, it blatantly snubs S.H.I.E.L.D. as though it never existed. Sure, the MCU could incorporate the show's characters and plots down the line, but it will likely recast them and rework the same ideas in different ways, which is even worse. In many ways, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. went above and beyond what anyone ever expected from a MCU live-action show and it introduced several concepts and arcs from the comics that took things in fresh and interesting directions. Seeing WandaVision introducing a concept that was already established in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to discredit the ABC series on top of everything else.
With Feige wanting the new MCU shows to be more connected than the ones produced under the Marvel TV umbrella, one could argue it makes sense to start fresh. However, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t have to be a casualty of this new era. The problem is ultimately that the MCU’s overreliance on interconnectivity removes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from canon. Down the line, the series will likely become something fans can still enjoy on its own, but it’s the upcoming MCU properties that will receive credit for ushering in new storylines and ideas that were already done before and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. deserves far better and more credit than that.