Why Agents of SHIELD’s cancellation is a blow to the MCU

As the first television show with direct ties to the MCU wraps up filming for its final season, we take a look at how Agents of SHIELD raised the bar for female representation and diversity.

Agents of SHIELD finished filming its upcoming seventh and final season this past week, becoming one of the longest-running superhero shows in recent history. The ABC series is known for many things, such as its close ties to the MCU, intricate storytelling, and tendency to place diverse representation front and center long before Black Panther or Captain Marvel came along.

Following the adventures of a team of SHIELD agents as they cross the globe to keep Earth safe, Agents of SHIELD was a criminally underrated jewel buried beneath the flash and grit of Marvel’s Netflix shows. It featured a mix of brand new characters and ones who were lifted from the pages of Marvel Comics like Quaker, Mockingbird, and Ghost Rider.

The series premiered in September 2013, presented as a spin-off of the first Avengers film that follows a resurrected Phil Coulson (played to the hilt by Clark Gregg) who leads a team of heroes against such threats as Hydra, Life Model Decoys and the Kree. Ironically, the show’s first season had high ratings but mixed reviews, with subsequent seasons having improved reviews but a decline in viewership.

In 2016, an online digital spin-off series, Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot, featured Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez (played with sincerity by Natalia Cordova-Buckley), the MCU’s first Latina superhero, in a solo mission. The original, as well as the spin-off series, won several awards, including a Critics’ Choice Award, a Webby, and a Teen Choice Award.

The show was at its best when it focused on its array of talented female actresses and their characters. In addition to Cordova-Buckley, veteran actress Ming-Na Wen played expert fighter Melinda May, Elizabeth Henstridge as one-half of the unit’s science team played Jemma Simmons, newcomer Chloe Bennet played the Inhuman Skye/Daisy Johnson/Quake, and Adrianne Palicki took on the role of Bobbie Morse, aka Mockingbird.

These characters are smart, funny, brave, loyal, fierce, and vulnerable. They often have love interests, but they are not defined or restricted by that role. Melinda becomes a mentor and trainer to both Daisy and Yo-Yo, while Bobbi and Jemma share their love of science and bond over complicated relationships with their workplace significant others.

So, in addition to a Latina superhero, the series featured not one but two Asian-American characters (Daisy being the first Asian-American superhero in the MCU also), an African-American male lead in the form of Henry Simmons’ Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie who is the moral center of the team, and an Asian-American female behind the scenes with co-creator Maurissa Tancharoen.

It’s rare for a superhero show to not only take its female cast seriously, but to actually give them meaty, rewarding storylines that keeps fans coming back for more. With Jessica Jones cancelled, Wynonna Earp on extended hiatus and the underwhelming story acs for female heroines in most modern superhero series (looking at you, Titans), the women of Agents of SHIELD will be sorely missed. However, we’re grateful for one last season next year and the possibility that they may resurface in the MCU down the road.

What did you think of Agents of SHIELD’s cancellation? Let us know in the comments below.