Agents of SHIELD's Marauders Explained

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Agents of SHIELD's New Supervillain Team, Explained

By Meagan Damore

Published Apr 28, 2018

The Agents of SHIELD fought off an attack by a group of brutal alien invaders who first appeared in another Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Option Two," the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In "Option Two," the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phil Coulson and his team faced off against brutal alien invaders called the Marauders. Though this is the Marauders' debut on the Marvel television series, it isn't the first time they've turned up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Marauders were actually featured first in the opening scene of Thor: The Dark World, where the God of Thunder drove them out of the Nine Realms during the Battle of Vanaheim. After the Bifrost fell in the first Thor, the Nine Realms were left unprotected for a spell and the Marauders took advantage, murdering and looting their way across the universe. Together with the Warriors Three and an Asgardian army, Thor fought off the Marauder invasion in Vanaheim. After he beat their Kronan warrior, they surrendered immediately, thus ending the conflict.

On the show, however, the Marauders posed a bigger threat. In fact, Deke -- who encountered them as he grew up in the future -- described them as nigh unbeatable: "They were more than Marauders. They're intergalactic scavengers with no planet of their own, so they just take from others, and wherever they go, darkness follows," he explained. "Well, it's not the concept of darkness. It's literal darkness. It follows them because they're magic and they can see in the dark and we can't, so it makes them kill us better with their claws. Yeah, did I not mention the foot-long razor claws? Because yeah."

When Mack asked if the people of the future figured out how to stop them, Deke added, "No, we didn't stop them. We just gave them whatever they wanted and then said thank you and cleaned up the bodies after they left."

The Marauders may have fallen against magic hammers in Thor, but the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bullets did nearly nothing to them. Indeed, if not for the timely arrival of Glenn Talbot's Graviton, they likely would have been defeated. Even the Marauders are no match against the forces of gravity.

Airing Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 stars Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons, Ian De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Elizabeth Henstridge.