Which Team Will Be Featured in the Agents of SHIELD Spinoff?

We’ve been hearing about an Agents of SHIELD spin-off for a few weeks now, and yesterday Deadline reported that Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood are finalizing deals to lead the new series. This obviously begs the question of what exactly the show will be about – I mean I highly doubt it’ll just be “The Wild Misadventures of Lance and Bobbi”, following their on again off again relationship as they punch their way through their problems.

We’ve seen team-centric shows dive into spinoffs before: Buffy the Vampire Slayer spawned Angel and the two ran side by side successfully for almost 5 years, while Once Upon a Time gave us the short-lived Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I’m using these examples of course because of their similarities to SHIELD (Angel and Buffy were both Joss Whedon shows, while OUAT is another ABC show) and to prove a point that it could really go either way with the new show having a smooth run alongside its parent, or lasting no more than a season.

If I know anything for sure about team-centric shows though, it’s that they tend to spawn more team-centric shows, meaning this Marvel spinoff will probably be focused on more than just Mockingbird and Hunter. Ever since the recent reveal of “The Real S.H.I.E.L.D.”, I’ve been speculating that this new team Bobbi and Mack are a part of will develop and transform into one of the agencies or organizations from the comics (speaking of which, it’d be cool to see Mack get a big role in this new show). Now with the spinoff news, I think that’s precisely what’s going to happen in the new series, it’s just a matter of which organization they go with. Here are my top four guesses and how they could connect to the greater MCU:

S.T.R.I.K.E.

The Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies is basically the British equivalent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In the comics, the director of S.T.R.I.K.E. happens to be Lance Hunter, so this was an obvious choice. Since HYDRA has forced S.H.I.E.L.D. to disband and start again from the ground up, establishing some international agencies to assist could be a valuable option. Since “The Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” seems so against the idea of Coulson being the singular, all-knowing leader who safeguards all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secrets, I think they’d be in favour of extending leadership powers to other branches. Depending on when this spinoff premieres, it could also play into the Civil War storyline. The Superhuman Registration Act is a nearly worldwide event, and in the comics it was Hunter and S.T.R.I.K.E.’s job to oversee the execution of the Act in the UK and explain it’s effect to the British superhuman population.

W.C.A

The World Counterterrorism Agency was formed by Bobbi Morse and several former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Technically this all happens after the Secret Invasion event, but I can see Marvel deciding to establish it earlier. The W.C.A. seemed primarily concerned with threats from A.I.M., who developed advanced technological weaponry for HYDRA and were originally organized by Baron von Strucker. In the MCU, A.I.M. was founded by Aldrich Killian, and after the events of Iron Man 3 it is left unclear as to whether or not the organization continues to run without his leadership. In the post-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we were introduced to von Strucker who is still an active leader within HYDRA and will also play a part in Age of Ultron. Whether or not von Strucker’s facilities will ever be connected with A.I.M. is an interesting question, but either way the W.C.A. would have no shortage of foes to pursue.

S.W.O.R.D.

The Sentient World Observation and Response Department is a subdivision of S.H.I.E.L.D. that deals with alien threats to world security. This was actually the first thing I thought of when it was revealed that Bobbi and Mack were working for a different organization and reporting on Coulson (since Coulson, Mack and Skye had been exposed to alien tech). I think S.W.O.R.D. could be the perfect next step for branching out of S.H.I.E.L.D. We’re already dealing with alien encounters on AoS, and with Inhumans and Infinity War on the horizon there’s plenty more to explore – hey, they could even make connections to the Nova Corps or the Guardians of the Galaxy if they wanted to. If they went with S.W.O.R.D., we could also end up seeing characters like Abigail Brand or, if we’re lucky, Spider-Woman.

Secret Avengers

Alright, this one is a bit less likely because of the film actors’ contracts, but I figured I’d include it for the sake of covering all bases. The Secret Avengers are S.H.I.E.L.D.’s very own Avengers black ops unit. This team has been led by both Maria Hill and Daisy Johnson (aka Skye) at different times, and includes characters like Mockingbird, Coulson, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, Iron Patriot (Rhodey) and Nick Fury Jr. While we probably wouldn’t be getting the big names like Black Widow or Hawkeye or Rhodey, they could definitely introduce Spider-Woman or Taskmaster, and Marvel TV already has Daisy and Bobbi (and possibly Maria Hill) at their disposal.

Which team do you think Bobbi and Lance could be part of? Do you think the show will follow just the pair of them?