The Marvel Cinematic Universe turns ten this year, and Marvel Studios recently decided to commemorate the occasion by bringing the entire MCU together for a class photo ahead of Avengers: Infinity War. Well, it was almost the entire MCU, except for a significant omission: Clark Gregg. The Phil Coulson actor couldn't make it to the class picture, raising questions about why he didn't show. But now Gregg has taken to social media to confirm that his commitments to promoting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at New York Comic Con prevented him from doing so. Gregg tweeted.
Even though Clark Gregg couldn't be there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the rest of the live-action Marvel heroes, he was still doing diligent work as a member of the Marvel family. It just happened that he was doing that job on the TV side of things.
Longtime fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe already know how vital Phil Coulson (and by extension, Clark Gregg) is to the MCU as a whole. Coulson is one of the oldest characters in the entire franchise, having made his debut in 2008 when Jon Favreau's Iron Man first debuted in theaters. From there, he went on to appear in several of the Phase 1 movies such as Thor and Iron Man 2, before being killed by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) during the events of The Avengers -- the event that caused the team to gel into a cohesive unit.
Clark Gregg's tweet helped to clear up why he wasn't present for the class photo (mainly because other "dead" characters were there as well), but it didn't answer the question of whether or not we will ever see Phil Coulson in a Marvel movie ever again. The continuity between Marvel's films and Marvel's TV shows has remained shaky at best, and many on the film side of things continue to insist that Coulson is still very much dead -- despite his apparent resurrection in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. For now, it looks like we're going to have to take solace knowing that Clark Gregg is still out there in flying his Marvel flag.
Only time will tell if Clark Gregg will ever return to the silver screen side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Agent Phil Coulson. Until he does, you can keep an eye on the MCU's current movie heroes when Black Panther debuts in theaters on February 16, as well as later this year when everyone unites for Avengers: Infinity War on May 4. Here's all of the information that we currently have on Black Panther, and here's what we know about Infinity War.
