Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been renewed for its sixth season, although ABC is shortening the run down to 13 episodes only. Every previous season of the show has had 22 episodes, which causes us to wonder whether Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 is intended as some sort of send-off for the series.
Formally, ABC hasn’t said that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 will be the show’s last. More optimistic fans might like to think that the shortened episode count has nothing to do with the series’ future. (After all, most of the Marvel shows on Netflix survive on 13 episodes apiece, and they keep on getting renewed.)
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 was split into two chunks: in the first half, Coulson and the gang spent some time in a dark future where Earth had been destroyed; and in more recent episodes, they came back to the present to try and prevent said future. This places the team on Earth during the events of Avengers: Infinity War, which could well have some interesting consequences, considering how that film ends.
It’s unclear at this stage whether Clark Gregg will return as Phil Coulson in season 6. The show has been teasing his death for months now, and Gregg is needed by the Marvel film division for the 1990s-set Captain Marvel movie. If we had to guess, we’d say that Coulson will stick around, but in a reduced capacity that allows him to miss the odd episode.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.