Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will soon air its milestone 100th episode, and it promises to tie together a great deal of what has made S.H.I.E.L.D. so much fun for five seasons so far. The official episode description revealed that viewers will finally learn the details of that mysterious deal Coulson made with Ghost Rider at the end of Season 4, which seemed to indicate that Robbie Reyes himself could make an appearance. Unfortunately, actor Gabriel Luna ruled out Robbie turning up, saying this when asked if he'd be back:
No. Unless they're pulling old footage because I didn't come in for it.
However the 100th episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. answers the question of what deal Coulson made with the Spirit of Vengeance, it won't involve any new scenes with Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes. Luna's comments to EW will undoubtedly come as a disappointment to S.H.I.E.L.D. fans who grew to love having him around in the first leg of Season 4, and his reappearance later in the season felt like a sign that maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. could find a way to bring him back on a regular basis. After all, he was central to a major arc and had powers that could help the agents out significantly.
Alas, we won't get any new footage of Robbie Reyes, although Gabriel Luna did make the point that old footage could be used to incorporate him into the 100th episode. I'm guessing we can at least count on Robbie appearing as Ghost Rider in the "previously on" segment at the beginning of the hour, and it's possible that flashbacks could be incorporated into the story. S.H.I.E.L.D. has proved in Season 5 that nothing is really impossible on the show anymore, so we can probably count on a wild ride in the landmark episode.
We have to hope that S.H.I.E.L.D. will find a way to bring Ghost Rider back into the mix at some point, although perhaps we should focus now on crossing our fingers that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't get cancelled. The show isn't the biggest hit in the ratings, and the cancellation of its lead-in series could be a sign that ABC wants to make some changes in the Friday night lineup. Disney apparently stepped in to save S.H.I.E.L.D. from cancellation after Season 4; there's no saying if the same could be true after Season 5.
That said, there's still plenty of time left in Season 5, and the stakes are higher than ever after the devastating twist for one character in the previous episode. Now that Coulson and Co. are back in the present on Earth, they have a new batch of enemies to deal with, including Dove Cameron's creepy new character. We'll have to wait and see how the rest of the season unfolds.
New episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. air on Friday nights at 9 p.m. ET on ABC. For more viewing options now and in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule, our Netflix premiere guide, and our Amazon Prime rundown.
