As "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." prepares to declassify its third season, two of its key characters have undergone significant transformations, both physical and emotional. As series stars Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet tell CBR News, both Director Phil Coulson and his protege, the Agent Formerly Known As Skye, Daisy "Quake" Johnson, start the season in considerably different headspaces.

The veteran operative Coulson is more world-weary than ever after literally losing his left hand and metaphorically losing his right (the AWOL Agent Melinda May), while facing a new adversarial relationship with rival agency boss Rosalind Price and her Inhuman-hunting Advanced Threat Containment Unit. "He's got his hands full," says Gregg, "even if he's only got one of them."

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Meanwhile the rookie Johnson has come into her own, embracing both her seismic abilities and her potential to bridge the gap between the mainstream world and the emerging breed of Inhumans. "Obviously in the struggle of having the powers in the beginning was really difficult," says Bennet. "But now, she can relate more than anyone to the outbreak of new Inhumans transforming all over the world, so I think she has a pretty clear idea of what she's supposed to be doing."