The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has sent the entertainment industry into a tailspin, with movie release date changes and production shutdowns forcing studios to rethink their strategies in order to salvage profits in the wake of a global pandemic. With social distancing and self-quarantines happening all across the country, people will be staying home looking for alternative ways to keep themselves occupied. Disney has already smartly released two of its biggest 2019 films earlier than expected, and ABC should continue the trend by releasing the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D early.
Debuting in 2013, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the first television series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show follows S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who was resurrected after his apparent death in 2012's The Avengers, as he leads a small team of secret agents as they handle smaller cases within the universe. The show features a large cast of characters ranging from original S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to classic Marvel characters, including some cameos from characters in the MCU films.
Though the show has never been a ratings juggernaut, it has still retained a passionate fan base throughout its run and has received positive reviews from critics. The show's upcoming seventh season will be the last, and is scheduled to debut later in the year but does not have a release date yet. Since the coronavirus outbreak has a majority of Americans staying home, AoS fan Chris Pacino wrote on Twitter asking Disney and ABC to release the final season early, tagging Gregg alongside fellow AoS actors Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen and Natalia Cordova in the post. Both Bennet and Gregg have retweeted Panico's post in support of an early release.
Releasing the final season early would be the best course of action for the end of the series. It was confirmed in October 2019 that visual effects for the final season were finished, so the fear of releasing an unfinished product isn't a problem. But releasing the final season early is about more than just finishing the series.
As mentioned earlier, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has never been a ratings darling for ABC despite its connection to the highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Though the debut of the first season brought in big numbers, viewership declined sharply, eventually moving the show to Friday nights in its fifth season and becoming a summer show in its sixth. Still, ABC has kept the show going thanks to consistent viewership and fan loyalty. At this point, neither ABC nor AoS are looking to rope in any new fans with this final season, so dropping the final batch of episodes early would still satisfy fans that have stuck with the series through the years.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is also a very special case when compared to other television series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a number of reasons. It is currently the longest-running MCU series and the only series that has survived past Season 3. The only other MCU show to get a third season was Hulu's The Runaways, which ended its run late last year. It is also the only MCU series that is directly affected by the events of the films. Other than a handful of small references and callbacks, most of the MCU shows are designed to operate as separate entries that exist in their own little mini-universes that tell smaller, more intimate stories.
The end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the end of an era for MCU television, as the franchise moves over to Disney+ with a slew of new shows and miniseries set to continue the precedent established by the ABC show. Releasing the final season early would be the best swag song the series could ask for.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return next summer for its final season on ABC. The series stars Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons, Iain De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Elizabeth Henstridge and Clark Gregg.