Ever since the season 5 finale, fans have been wondering whether we’ve truly seen the end of Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as the last time we saw him he had just weeks to live. Now, the first trailer for season 6 has finally arrived and looks to answer the question, though it brings up a whole lot more, as it seems that we may have seen the last of Coulson on the show…but not Clark Gregg.
The 75-second teaser has Mack (Henry Simmons) take over as the new leader of the team, with a hologram of Coulson offering words of encouragement. Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) then explains that she was with him right to the end. So, in case we weren’t clear on it, he really is dead.
As fans have guessed following the season 5 finale, the gang’s new mission is to rescue Fitz (Iain DeCaestecker) from his cryo-sleep in deep space. It looks like Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) finds him – or at least, his pod – pretty quickly, but the presence of some new threats that Quake (Chloe Bennet) and Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) seem to enjoy fighting will cause extra problems.
The good news is, though, that they might have an unexpected ally to help them. The final shot of the promo reveals…Coulson! Or, rather someone who looks just like him but hasn’t even heard of S.H.I.E.L.D.
What’s going on here? Is he a resurrected, amnesiac Coulson? An alien duplicate? An evil twin? Anything’s possible in the Marvel universe, of course, so it’s probably going to be hard to guess at the moment. Though we have no doubt more will be revealed in the coming months.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 returns to ABC this summer for 13 episodes. And once that’s over, a seventh season has already been commissioned. The most popular Marvel TV show ain’t going anywhere, that’s for sure, and neither, it appears, is Clark Gregg.
