Cast and crew of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD appeared on a panel at WonderCon 2019 in the Arena at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, March 30 to talk about Season 6.
The panel began with Marvel’s Head of Television, Jeph Loeb, introducing the panelists, who came out on stage one by one. Panelists included actors Clark Gregg (Coulson), Elizabeth Henstridge (Simmons), Iain De Caestecker (Fitz), Natalia Cordova-Buckley (Yo-Yo), Henry Simmons (Mack), and Jeff Ward (Deke), as well as executive producers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Jeff Bell. As you’ll notice, Ming-Na Wen (Agent May) and Chloe Bennet (Daisy) were absent from the panel. That’s because they were busy filming the show!
The audience sang “Happy Birthday” to Clark Gregg, since his birthday was coming up in a few days. To put it lightly, it did not sound very good! I’ll spare you from the entirety of the song, and let you listen to the very end and see the panelists’ reactions in the video below.
So when Jeph Loeb asked Clark Gregg if he had a birthday wish, Clark joked, “I would like to know what song people just sang.” He then spoke about how lucky he was to have to chance to direct the first episode of Season 6, and asked Jeph Loeb if there was any way to see a few minutes of it. After a bit of build up, the entire Season 6 premiere episode was shown to the audience. (It seemed like this was supposed to be a surprise, but the fact that this was going to happen was clearly stated in the WonderCon schedule.)
After the screening of the episode, the panelists came back out on stage for some audience Q&A. Just a warning, the following may be a bit spoilery if you haven’t watched the first episode of Season 6 yet.
The first question went to Iain De Caestecker, which was whether we would see Fitz get a monkey this season. We learned that Iain actually adopted a monkey in real life! Her name is Pippin. But he said he would love one on the show. Jeph Loeb threw the question over to Jeff Bell of whether Fitz could have a monkey, and he responded, “Maybe a space monkey, ’cause he’s in space.”
When an audience member asked the panelists what their fondest memory was while working on Agents of SHIELD, Maurissa answered first, talking about how it was her and her husband, Jed Whedon’s, first show together, so it was like their “first child.” Natalia spoke about how it was her first time being on a show that had such a strong fandom, and that she enjoys meeting all the fans. When Jeph called on Elizabeth to answer, Iain looked expectantly at her, causing her to answer, “Any scene with Iain de Caestecker.” Of course, Iain played innocent. But in all seriousness, her actual answer was walking on set for the first time, and also getting to do a scene with Stan Lee. Jeff Bell recalled a sweet memory about the final scene at the end of the first season, when Clark Gregg was carving into the wall, and all the actors came back to set and clapped, even though they didn’t have to be there. He commented, “I think that kind of camaraderie has carried over for all these years.” As for Clark Gregg, he brought up the call he got from Marvel when they told him, “You’re going to have a lot of fun in The Avengers — until you don’t,” which then led to the fans not accepting that. The “obvious choice” for Jed Whedon was the 100th episode.
Once again, just like last year’s Agents of SHIELD WonderCon panel, Jeff Ward got picked on. When he finally got the chance to share his fondest memory, he recalled his first scene on his first day, when he and Ming-Na Wen and Chloe Bennet laughed together a lot, even though they didn’t really know each other yet. He also fondly remembered when he got the call to be a series regular, because he never thought that would happen.
Of course, since this panel was prior to the release of Avengers: Endgame, the question came up of how the events of this season fit in with the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Jeph Loeb took this question, avoiding giving a real answer, pointing out that you would have seen Avengers: Endgame by the time the Season 6 premiere aired on May 10, and saw what happened. Jeph also pointed out [slight spoiler] that at the beginning of the episode we had just watched, it said “One year later.” (However, now having seen Avengers: Endgame, it doesn’t seem like it explains a lot with it only skipping ahead one year, rather than five years…)
The panelists also talked about the actors and characters whom they missed that were no longer on the show, including Bill Paxton (John Garrett), Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood (Bobbi & Hunter), Ruth Negga (Raina), Kyle MacLachlan (Cal, Daisy’s Dad), B.J. Britt (Trip), Brett Dalton (Grant Ward), and Mallory Jansen (AIDA). However, Iain had the unique answer of two ferrets named Salt and Pepper who had been in the episode he did with Nick Blood last season! Jeph joked that he missed when Deke was on the show, teasing Jeff Ward since he wasn’t in the Season 6 premiere!
As for questions that they were tired of hearing at comic conventions, Clark answered, “What can you tease about X?” Iain humorously asked, “Who’s X?” For Maurissa and Jed, they didn’t like hearing that the show had gotten off to a “rocky start.” Jeff Ward said he was tired of hearing, “Who are you again?”
When the question came up of where the panelists would want their characters’ journey to take them when the show ends, Jeph Loeb interjected, saying that they’re not ending. Jed commented, “We think every season’s our last season,” and Maurissa added that every time they get picked up for another season, they think, “Oh, bonus!”
It then turned into a lightning round that was supposed to be only Yes or No questions. These included whether it was hard for Clark Gregg growing up with two names (Yes), and if Iain enjoys his brother’s restaurant in Scotland (Yes).
But when the question came up of their favorite memory of Stan Lee, they decided to give a real answer. Maurissa’s response was “Every moment with him is awesome.” Jeph gave his own answer, recalling how generous Stan Lee was. He also told us a story about how he had met Stan Lee for the first time a long time ago. Then about twenty years had gone by, and Stan was in his 90s. Jeph went up to him and introduced himself, to which Stan replied, “I know who you are, Jeph.” This blew Jeph away that he remembered him.
As for what superhero power they would like to have, Elizabeth answered Quake, Henry answered the ability to heal people, which Jeff Ward jumped on board with, Maurissa would like to teleport, and Jed and Jeff Bell would want to fly.
When asked if he had ever looked into owning a real life shotgun ax, Henry answered, “Oddly, yes.”
[spoiler] Regarding playing a bad guy in the episode we just saw, Clark said it was fun, and recited his line: “Never heard of him.”
Another question was whether Clark preferred cheesy or emotional scenes, but he answered that he never knows until later if they’re cheesy or not! But he said that he likes them all.
Jeph Loeb started to wrap up the panel, but Clark insisted on taking one last question from the young boy who was next. The boy asked, “I’m kinda new to this show, so what’s it about? I’m just curious.” This caused the panelists and the crowd to erupt into laughter. Jeph Loeb told him to tell his parents that he’d need 100 hours to watch every episode between now and May 10.
With that, the panel ended.
You can view more of our photos from Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD panel at WonderCon 2019 below.
