Summary
Having recently rewatchedMarvel’sAgents of SHIELD, I still can’t believe how well the first season’s final episodes crossed over withCaptain America: The Winter Soldier. Just over 10 years later, the ability to blend narratives between network television and a big-screen theatrical release is still one of the most impressive executions of connectivity within an interconnected universe such as the MCU. As such, it makes sense why there was never a similar crossover of equal size again before the dawn of the steaming Disney+ era.
Having aired for seven seasons between 2013-2020,Agents of SHIELDwas just as much a part of the Infinity Sagaas any MCU movie. Regardless of its apparent lack of canonicity in the current era, the first season’s ability to not only reference but also be intrinsically affected by the movies required some amazing navigation from both Marvel Studios and television’s Marvel Entertainment. To that end,I truly believe that the final episodes ofAgents of SHIELDseason 1 and its crossover with the events ofThe Winter Soldieris still one of the best moments in the early phases of the MCU.
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Agents of SHIELD’s Crossover With Winter Soldier Was MCU Connectivity At Its Finest
Providing The 2014 Movie With A “Real-Time” Prologue and Epilogue
Right off the bat,one of the most impressive elements ofAgents of SHIELD’scrossover withWinter Soldierwas the scheduling. 10 years ago,Captain America: The Winter Soldierwas released on April 4th, 2014. During that same month,Agents of SHIELDseason 1, “End of the Beginning” aired on ABC on April 1st, just a few days beforehand. In the episode,Agent Phil Coulsonand his team faced some serious distrust among their own ranks, all while seeds were being sown forTheWinter Soldieritself.
This included Agent Sitwell leaving to boardThe Lumurian Staras he’s featured in the opening scene ofTheWinter Soldier, as well as Agent Simmons' comments that SHIELD was scrambling to handle some sort of major crisis. As such, it effectively served as a prologue episode which helped provide additional context and background for the new MCU movie which fans could watch from home before leaving for the theater (all in the same week.) However, this preceding episode was nothing compared to the very next episode, “Turn, Turn, Turn”, which released on April 8th, only a few days afterThe Winter Soldier’stheatrical release.
The reveal inThe Winter Soldierthat Hydra had embedded itself within SHIELDnaturally had massive ramifications for the Marvel show. As such, the episode immediately following the release of this MCU movie served as a key epilogue, showing how SHIELD agents began turning on each other due to justified mistrust and paranoia. It even saw Brett Dalton’s Grand Ward being revealed as a member of Hydra, a core member of Coulson’s team.Combined with footage fromThe Winter Soldierand a major appearance in the series' finale from Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury himself, a real-time MCU crossover such as this really hasn’t happened since.
SHIELD’s Final Season 1 Episodes Make Me Love Winter Soldier Even More
“We Are Not Agents of Nothing!”
I’ve always loved and deeply admired Marvel’s willingness to fully dismantle the core premise ofAgents ofSHIELDby the end of its first season.The Winter Soldiereffectively destroyed the entire infrastructure of SHIELD as it had been established in Marvel’s first phasethanks to Hydra and Captain America’s successfully exposing them to the world. In effect, this allowed SHIELD to become even more creative with future seasons, putting its agents into unknown territory as they fought to survive and rebuild, beginning with Fury making Coulson SHIELD’s new director, a role he would hold onto for quite some time.
That said,the ways in which the final episodes ofSHIELDseason 1 enhanceThe Winter Soldieris something I’ve always loved as well. ThroughSHIELD, viewers get to see the full scope of Hydra’s infiltration, not just from the vantage point of Steve Rogers alone. It showed how individual agents were impacted by the hard truth that everything they’d fought for had long been corrupted by dark forces. Furthermore, appearances from the likes of Fury and Maria Hill also point back toThe Winter Soldier, seeing how the show picks them up right where the movie left them before the credits.
Why Agents of SHIELD Did Fewer Crossovers Afterward
(It Was Really Hard To Pull Off)
Agents of SHIELDnever stopped being connected to the rest of the MCU. Throughout its seven seasons, there were plenty of references made to characters and events seen in MCU movies, such asCoulson secretly being responsible for prepping Fury’s HelicarrierinAvengers: Age of Ultron, or mentions of Thanos and the Battle of Wakanda in Agents of SHIELDseason 5.However, they never did have another major crossover like they had in the first season withThe Winter Soldier, partly because it was so hard to pull off.
As was later revealed in interviews with the cast and crew, it was quite a challenge keepingThe Winter Soldier’sHydra reveal a secret. Scripts were largely redacted prior to shooting, and nailing the release of episodes with the movie’s theatrical release was reportedly difficult enough that pulling it off a second time with future seasons was something that apparently proved too difficult. This does make sense, giving consideration to the actual writing and development of both the show and various movies ahead of time.
This ultimately explains why crossovers and connection points between SHIELD and the greater MCU became smaller and far less involved going forward, especially as Marvel Studios' production schedule massively ramped up. To that end, I do believe that the aforementioned challenges involved make what was achieved withTheWinter Soldiereven more impressive. It’s a large testament to what madeSHIELDso compelling to begin with, especially with its first few seasons.
I Won’t Forgive Marvel Until Agents of SHIELD Is Canon Again
At Least Seasons 1-4
Unfortunately, it’s recently been confirmed thatMarvel Studios no longer considersAgents of SHIELDto be canon with the events of the main MCU timeline (Earth-616). This includesWinter Soldier’scrossover episodes from the first season. However, there is some hope forSHIELDone day getting its canon status backthanks to Marvel’s decision to make at least Netflix’sDaredevilcanon with the reintroduction of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’onofrio’s Kingpin in more recent MCU movies and shows includingSpider-Man: No Way Home,Hawkeye,She-Hulk,Echo, and soon the brand-new seriesDaredevil: Born Again.
AllMarvel’s Agents of SHIELDneeds is a new MCU project to bring characters like Coulson or Daisy “Quake” Johnson back into the fold, providing a similar logical means to make the show canon once more. Many, including myself, had hoped that that project would have beenNick Fury’sSecret Invasionseries with its heavily-rumored Quake cameo. At any rate,I’d even settle for a compromise where only the first four seasons of SHIELD become canon. After all,Agents of SHIELDseasons 5-7 were largely set in different timelines anyway (and hardly had any major impact on the rest of the MCU at large).
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Cast
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a television series that follows Agent Phil Coulson as he assembles a team within the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division to investigate mysterious phenomena, safeguarding the world from extraordinary threats. Debuting in 2013, the series expands on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s exploration of covert operations.
