ABC Renews "Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D." for 7th Season

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"Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" Renewed for Season 7 at ABC
by Nellie Andreeva and Denise Petski
November 16, 2018


Ahead of its sixth season premiere this summer, ABC has renewed "Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D." for a seventh season. It is believed to consist of 13 episodes, on par with Season 6.

The timing of the early renewal is likely tied to the cast’s option coming up. Along with picking up the actors’ options, ordering Season 7 ahead of time would allow for the two shorter seasons to be filmed back-to-back, which helps to reduces costs.

While not a strong Live+same day ratings performer, "S.H.I.E.L.D." has excelled in on-demand viewing.

https://deadline.com/2018/11/marvels...bc-1202503797/

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Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. goes out with massive spectacle and a bittersweet goodbye

"The final final season of S.H.I.E.L.D. has jumped through time, altered the course of history, and now, in its two-part conclusion, managed to deliver a spectacle truly worthy of its outsized ambitions," says Alex McLevy. But the two-part finale, he says, "ended on a surprisingly quiet, bittersweet note." McLevy adds: "For seven seasons, we’ve watched these people evolve, becoming, if not always better versions of themselves, then wiser ones. That’s one of the best things about this series: It’s never reduced anyone to an increasingly one-dimensional version of themselves as so many shows do, just relying on the same old traits instead of letting them grow. Mack walked away from S.H.I.E.L.D. life quite recently, before accepting his losses and returning to duty. Yo-Yo spent most of this season undergoing a crisis of conscience, doubting herself and her abilities. Fitz confronted the worst version of himself, and had to accept there’s a dark side of him he can never fully erase. May, Coulson, Daisy—all of them literally became different people as time went by. Jemma might have remained the most like herself (and honestly, this season didn’t do much with her), but even she changed in profound ways, as one of the series’ finest moments can attest. So watching as they peel off from their digitally-aided reunion, one by one, to move on from this time in their lives, should inevitably resonate with anyone who’s been there for all of it. They’ve already moved on, the show says, so it’s okay for us to do the same. Not before kicking some ass, of course."

ALSO:

• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ends its 136-episode run as one of the most successful science fiction superhero television offerings
• When a show's gone on a bit past its sell-by date, this is the type of ending you want
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. creators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen on why this finale was particularly special: "It’s so strange because we feel that we’ve said goodbye to the show a number of times now. We tied everyone’s arcs up with a nice little bow back in Season 5," says Tancharoen. "We wanted this to be different, not another goodbye," says Whedon. "We landed on the feeling of nostalgia, a feeling of moving on as life changes around you. It’s not a sense of loss. Lives change. Paths diverge. You have that sense of longing, nostalgia and connection with people with whom you spent lots of time."
• Whedon and Tancharoen on their ending: "It’s the thing that we were all feeling in production and with the actors, every meeting we had, it was a ‘last,'" says Whedon. "And our studio was being torn down around us, so the whole season was infused with that sense and our goal was to reward the feeling that the audience would be having of, ‘I can’t believe this is over.’" Tancharoen adds: "And also, just in the story saying this is their final mission together, just really nailing that."
• How Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to save the spectacle for the end: "The way it works is, you know, there’s a pattern budget, we get the same amount for every episode," says executive producer Jeffrey Bell. "And so one of the things that we’ve gone to ABC about—and they’ve been good about—is we say, this week we want to have tuna sandwiches for lunch, so that next week we can have, like, a five-course meal. And the problem is, we started in the 1930s and spent all our money. We just got backlot period costumes, which energized everybody and got everyone really excited. But we have the same amount for every episode. So it’s up to us and our our wonderful line producer, Garry Brown, to really be able to do that. You know, we’re a network show with not a lot of money. And so we’re sad when the corridors are more than we want—you know, we’re as aware of them as you have been from time to time. (All laugh.) And it’s not what we want, it’s just all we can afford to do. We do try and save, so that we can go out with some scope and style."
• How Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson "full circle"
• Did some characters become Agents of S.W.O.R.D.?
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wrapped filming a year ago, so producers have been living with the finale for a long time
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast members react to their characters' finale fates

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ends on a season high

The first part of the two-part series finale drew 1.64 million viewers, followed by 1.35 million for the second part. ALSO: The series finale had a direct connection to Avengers: Endgame.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finale marks the end of an era when Marvel shows could run free

"After seven seasons and 134 episodes, Agents of SHIELD comes to an end on ABC this week, and with it might go the last of the great Marvel TV shows," says Amanda Prahl. "As Disney has moved to consolidate all of its properties under the same banner, it’s systematically extinguished the TV shows licensed to non-Disney outlets—Netflix’s Defenders quartet, FX’s Legion, Hulu’s Runaways—to make room for a new batch exclusive to Disney+, featuring actors and characters ported over from the movies, and even those on Disney-owned networkers like Freeform and ABC are getting the hook in favor of moving everything to Disney’s subscription streaming service. Agents of SHIELD isn’t quite the last of the pre-Disney+ Marvel shows (Hellstrom, a one-off limited series, will air on Hulu in October), but it already feels like a relic of an era in which those properties could develop along their own lines without needing to serve as trailers for future blockbusters. Agents of SHIELD was more closely tied to the movies than most—Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson, for one, made several jumps from the TV to the big screen—but as the series extricated itself from the larger continuity, it got a kind of freedom the rest of the universe couldn’t—and now, probably, never will." Prahl adds: "With the new wave of Disney+ shows united under MCU mastermind Kevin Feige, I fear that self-contained quality may be on the verge of extinction. Where Marvel TV shows used to be allowed their own discrete tones and storytelling, the very nature of the new wave means those series must serve the movies first and themselves second. And, unfortunately, that also may mean less thematic freedom."