Summary

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. originally tied in with the MCU movies, but there are discontinuities between the television and movie parts of the franchise.
• Later seasons had a harder time meshing with the rest of the cinematic universe, but the series can still be connected to the films.
• Since the MCU has returned shows like Daredevil to the main canon, there is hope that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D could either be reincorporated into canon or rebooted.

All seven seasons of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were added in early 2022 to the Disney+ library, less than two years after the series ended its run on ABC. That means there's a new reason to kick off another Marvel Cinematic Universe binge session. The only question is, where does Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fit in to the overall MCU saga?

In the early seasons, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had direct ties to the events of the Marvel films. In addition, fallout from the films directly impacted and, in some cases, drastically altered, the course of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, as the series progressed, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. slowly began to diverge from the MCU timeline. Eventually, that divergence became quite literal, as the final season depicted the titular agents traveling to different time periods, from the 1930s onward. This was done by the writers as a means of having the show avoid the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But now, viewers planning an all-in MCU binge are left to piece together where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s seven seasons dovetail with the adventures of the big-screen heroes. This guide may offer some assistance.

Updated April 3, 2024, by Joshua M. Patton: Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson was a character serving as connective tissue between early films in the MCU, and his death in the first Avengers film gave the team someone to, well, avenge. The choice to then undo that death to make him the star of a television series was as questionable at the time as it is today. However, the cast, producers, writers, directors and crew on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. more than justified their place in the Marvel Universe. While the show worked hard to connect to the larger MCU, it was always at its best when it did its own thing. This article has been updated with more context about why the MCU films never acknowledged the series and to comport to CBR's current formatting standards.

How to Watch Agents of SHIELD in an MCU Binge

As noted, the first couple of seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. make for a pretty smooth shared viewing experience, with direct references to the MCU throughout. Following the split between Marvel Television and Marvel Studios in 2015, the threads connecting the two franchises became more tenuous. For example, the sixth season does not reference the aftermath of Thanos' devastating snap, which wiped out half of all life in the universe. Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.'s seventh, and final, season took things even further by hurling the show's characters nearly 90 years into the past, leapfrogging over the MCU entirely. However, even with the shaky continuity, there's still enough material for viewers to stitch together a pretty comprehensive viewing experience. Here's a breakdown of how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the MCU link up.

How Agents of SHIELD Broke With the MCU Timeline

The seventh season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the wild card when it comes to an MCU rewatch. The season begins with the agents traveling back to 1931, over a decade before Steve Rogers undergoes his Super-Soldier Serum enhancement. Additionally, the season takes place in an alternate timeline from the MCU. For example, in Episode 5, "A Trout in the Milk," the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, specifically Project Insight, are seen as having taken place in the 1970s. But, for those wishing to work the movies into a Season 7 binge, Captain America: The First Avenger would theoretically take place between the second and third episodes of that season.

The truth behind the somewhat-sketchy connections to the MCU following Season 5 is that the writers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't expect the show to continue for two more seasons, and were simply trying to catch up to a radically changed MCU in the wake of Thanos' snap, later referred to as "The Blip" in Marvel canon. The problems become particularly evident during the show's sixth season, where the Blip is not referenced at all, and the characters seem unaffected by the events of Infinity War, despite the season taking place one year after Season 5. Still, a little suspension of disbelief can go a long way, and the problem corrects itself by Season 7, thanks to the time jump.

With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the collected Netflix Marvel series, now called the "Defenders Saga," all under one roof at Disney+, it remains to be seen how, or if, the characters from these series will reappear in the MCU. Both Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home saw the return of two characters from Daredevil, so it seems even behind-the-scenes there was no definitive answer. The reason is because of a deep-rooted behind-the-scenes tension between Marvel Studios, Marvel Television and the so-called "Creative Committee" at Marvel Entertainment.

Why Agents of SHIELD Was Never Referenced in the MCU Proper

How Marvel created their film and television empire is a saga as epic as the stories they put on screen, and it's documented in great detail in MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Gavin Edwards, Dave Gonzales and Jonanna Robinson. Marvel's top executive before Disney purchased it was Ike Pearlmutter, and he establied a "creative committee" to hamstring Kevin Feige's operation. He prevented Marvel Studios from developing films centered on women or heroes of color. In 2010 he and executive Alan Fine promoted Marvel Comics publisher Dave Buckley to start Marvel Television, who in turn tapped Joseph "Jeph" Loeb to be that division's creative director. While Marvel Television had success with producing animated series, live-action shows based on the Punisher, Mockingbird, Jessica Jones and Cloak and Dagger languished in development. (Though the latter two series eventually debuted on Netflix and Freeform, respectively, for two seasons each.)

It wasn't until they tapped Joss Whedon, who got his start in television, that Marvel Television got a show into production, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He developed the show with his brother Jed Whedon and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen, sharing showrunning duties through the first season. This is where the drama began, because Marvel "didn't actually want me to make it," Whedon said in 2015, saying Marvel Studios wanted him to prioritize work on the films. While Loeb was directed to ensure the series tied into the MCU, the film side of production wouldn't do the same, often actively refusing to allow the show to use characters or actors.

Getting Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, Cobie Smulders's Maria Hill and Jamie Alexander's Lady Sif were difficult struggles behind-the-scenes. In Avengers: Endgame none of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters nor those from The Defenders suite of Netflix series were even considered for the final battle. As late as fall 2023, Kevin Feige implied Marvel Television series weren't canon to the MCU, however once Daredevil: Born Again went under creative retooling, the formerly Netflix-based series seem to have been included in the MCU proper. However, the same isn't true for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Still, the series can work with an MCU rewatch, even if there are slight incongruities and discordances in the narrative.

The Multiverse Saga can reintegrate Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the MCU, offering hope for Coulson and the crew. The new head of Marvel Studios' television operations, Brad Winderbaum, responded positively to the idea of an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reboot. Whether they become variants of characters in the MCU proper or if the series itself is fully canonized, the powers-that-be have seemingly softened on the connection the show shares with the larger universe. If Phil Coulson and his agents are going to be brought back into the narrative, now is the perfect time to get caught up on their adventures.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the MCU films, are available to stream on Disney+.