Major spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven't seen the latest MCU blockbuster, don't read on!
It's been a crazy few weeks for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After 10 years and 18 movies, Avengers: Infinity War finally arrived in theaters and changed the entire shared universe as we knew it. Major characters were killed off as Thanos attempted to gather all of the Infinity Stones, and the movies ultimately ended with half of the galaxy disappearing. ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the MCU show with the most connections to the movie side of things, so how will it be affected by Thanos' snap of death? Actor Adrian Pasdar (aka Talbot) recently teased just that, saying:
Yeah, we do have stuff in the background periodically that references and ties into whats going on with Avengers: Infinity War. Yeah, they use that. They always tie in very well with what's going on [in the movies].
It looks like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will once again be changed as the result of a MCU blockbuster, which is an exciting prospect for all the hardcore Marvel fans out there. The community is rabid for crossovers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. has been moving away from these types of cross references in the most recent seasons.
Adrian Pasdar's comments to TV Line could signify some major changes in the ABC companion piece. Since we saw half of the MCU's biggest characters fade to dust in Infinity War's final moments, we can only assume that there will be a fair amount of disappearances within Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. While it seems unlikely that series regulars will be written off for the year in between Infinity War and Avengers 4, smart money says at least some past characters of tertiary figures end up biting the dust in this mysterious way.
While first two seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were very closely connected to the MCU (Nick Fury even showed up), we've seen the series distance itself from the blockbuster franchise. Joss Whedon is no longer coordinating between the two, with the twist about S.H.I.E.L.D. in Winter Soldier remaining one of the biggest instances of serialized storytelling thus far.
The events of Avengers: Infinity War were seemingly teased during the most recent episode of S.H.I.E.L.D., where Candy Man made a vague reference to something big happening in New York. Thanos and the Black Order's attack on Earth begins there, with Bruce Banner crashing down on the Sanctum Santorum. Now that Infinity War has been out for a few weeks, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. likely has given enough time to start really allowing the movie to affect the TV show's narrative. And with Coulson returning to the silver screen with Captain Marvel, we should probably expect more in the future.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Fridays on ABC. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Plus our superhero premiere list and Amazon premiere list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.
