A Peek into Season 4 of Agents of SHIELD

At the closing of season three of Agents of Shield, many things were held in limbo. With Hydra demolished and Shield on the comeuppance, there are definite shake-ups to the show we haven’t seen before.

The fourth season premieres Tuesday, September 20, at its new time of 10 p.m. EST. With the later time, we can expect a darker, grittier season to ensue.

We last left off with the members of Shield all in different corners. Daisy, seemingly on the lam after Lincoln’s sacrifice. She additionally leaves a lot of devastation in her path. Her old partner Mack is coupled with Coulson, who no longer holds the title of director. Instead, Coulson and Mack and the rest of the Shield team answer to an unnamed character played by Jason O’Mara. Agent May is said to be training specialist teams, which sounds a lot like Shield has been fully restored and able to recruit. Fitz and Simmons were last seen hovering around Dr. Holden Radcliffe, a transhumanist doctor whose interests have turned to Life Model Decoys, plays by the wonderful John Hannah.

Lastly, at San Diego Comic Con, Marvel made the big announcement that Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider would be joining the show. Played by Gabriel Luna (True Detective), the Spirit of Vengeance is also confirmed to have his younger brother Gabe in the mix. The first episode of the season is aptly named The Ghost. Showrunners have alluded to clashes between Daisy and Ghost Rider.

The cast is also joined by Lilli Birdsell playing a character named Lucy, Mallory Jansen as Dr. Radcliffe’s artificial intelligence AIDA and Parminder Nagra as an anti-Inhuman politician. We’ll also see the likes of Natalia Cordova-Buckley reprising her role as Elena ‘Yo-yo’ Rodriguez and Briana Venskus as the plucky Shield agent Piper. We’re hoping Juan Pablo Raba reprises his role of metal manipulator Joey Gutierrez and Axle Whitehead shows face again as Hellfire.

Here’s where the show left everyone and what that could mean for the fourth season:

Phil Coulson and Alphonso Mackenzie: Now answering to a new director of SHIELD, Coulson is coming off a rocky third season. Having made some tough calls and as far as the world knows he’s still dead, Coulson’s demotion comes at another troubling time. Shield is said to be operating back on the surface, and that requires a head that can, you know, actually be seen in the public. We know Coulson is partnered with Mack to track Daisy, what we don’t know is how Coulson will interact with Jason O’Mara’s Director. It is said that the character O’Mara is playing has roots in Marvel as early as the 1940s, so take a guess! The show could have thrown us a loop at the end of season three, whereas Coulson and Mack could be intentionally not catching Daisy to allow her to go dark.

Daisy Johnson: With Lincoln’s sacrifice and Hive’s death, we last saw Daisy walking a solo path and leaving a lot of destruction in her wake. With the press officially dubbing her Quake, we see her also trying to make good on her promises, checking in with future-seeing Inhuman Charles Hinton’s wife and daughter. The show has announced that she will be butting heads with Robbie Reyes, and it looks possible will see that in the first few episodes. The plot for the second episode in the season, Meet the Boss says so. Some of Lincoln’s last words to Daisy were to go on and do good, so Daisy could be taking that to heart.

Fitz, Simmons and Dr. Radcliffe: With Fitz and Simmons finally enacting on their long-held feelings and becoming a couple, it was also alluded to that they may not be fully with Shield. Given the tumultuous time Fitz and Simmons have, it would definitely be nice to see the pair living in domestic bliss for a bit, but showrunner Maurissa Tancheron has said the relationship still faces its difficulties. In the closing scenes of the season three finale, Radcliffe talks about working on projects with Fitz, and LMDs flashes on his computer screen. Radcliffe calls FitzSimmons agents, which means they haven’t departed the organization. Perhaps they’re consulting for Radcliffe or Radcliffe is working for Shield. LMDs, Life Model Decoys, have a long history in the Marvel universe, first appearing in the 1960s with Nick Fury on a mission from Leonardo da Vinci. But we have seen LMDs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before, at least, we’ve heard the name. In fact, it was Coulson who was privy to this information after trying to get Tony Stark on the phone.

Agent May: May’s main story wrapped up in the second half of the prior season, when she had to watch her ex-husband Dr. Andrew Garner turn into Inhuman killer/curer Lash for a final time. Not much is known what May will be up to in the upcoming season. We know two things, she’ll be training special task forces, and she’ll also be following in Coulson’s wariness over the new director.

In the weeks leading up to season four, which premieres at its new times of 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 20, Agents of SHIELD has been giving us some tiny glimpses into Ghost Rider. Robbie Reyes’ muscle car (Hell Charger) is different form other iterations of Ghost Rider, who ride a motorcycle. It was unveiled at San Diego Comic Con, but a teaser has shown in it some beautiful action. It definitely will rival Coulson’s Lola for coolness factor.

Additionally, the show will feel the shock wave with Marvel’s Doctor Strange, which will add magic to the universe. There’s enough space to speculate that Robbie Reyes will be Shields main fixation for the beginning half of the season, while the LMDs fall to the second half. The show has the potential to keep pulling on the Inhuman string as well,with Marvel’s Inhuman removed from the slate (although not entirely out of question), and the likes of Inhumans like Eden Fesi being named in the previous season. There’s been rumors circulating about the Inhumans Royal Family, but we shall see.

What are you looking forward to in the new season?

Here’s the final scene from season three’s finale to jumpstart your memory of where they left off: