6 Years Ago Today, Marvel's Longest Live-Action TV Series Ended Exactly Where It Began
Marvel's TV endeavors had a very different reputation in the 2010s, and that's partly because of this criminally underrated adventure program.
Six years ago today, Marvel's longest live-action TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., concluded with a nostalgic full-circle moment. The show's Season 7 finale saw Agent Phil Coulson (played by Clark Gregg) ride away in his flying Chevrolet Corvette, L.O.L.A., marking an exact reenactment of the pilot's ending. This callback was intended to delight fans and hint at new adventures for the beloved character.
Co-showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen expressed her emotional response to the iconic scene, saying, "I'm just going to cry." Coulson, a key figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, served as the show's central protagonist, maintaining a prominent role even after his apparent death in the fifth season. This longevity might come as a surprise to casual MCU viewers, given that the movies never confirm his survival after The Avengers.
The two-part finale, "The End Is at Hand" and "What We're Fighting For," reportedly drew approximately 1.5 million viewers, a modest but commendable number for a series often considered an afterthought by its core Marvel fanbase. Just five months after Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s end, Marvel launched its first Disney+ series, WandaVision, followed by a succession of Marvel-centric shows with shorter seasons and increased production values.
None of these Disney+ offerings, however, managed to delve as deeply into a character's story as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had with Coulson's, who remained the heart of the series, as Gregg himself reflected in a 2020 interview with DiscussingFilm.
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