SDCC: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. To End After Season 7

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. announced at San Diego Comic Con that the show will end after it's seventh season, which has already been filming while the sixth season has aired on Fridays on ABC. The "tentpole of Marvel television," as executive producer Jeph Loeb called it during the show's panel in Hall H, first began airing in 2013 when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was beginning to pick up steam into the powerhouse franchise it is today.

Over the years, the cast and crew has formed a close familial bond, with even newcomer Jeff Ward saying he felt welcomed into the family shortly after joining the cast. "They were so welcoming, and it's not always like that when you join a show that has been filming together for many years." The cast even pushed the audience to sing 'Happy Birthday' to producer Jed Whedon.

Clark Gregg has been the top-billed star since the series first began, and expresses his gratitude to the fans for being the driving force behind the show's inception. "I still remember coming out here in Hall back in 2010 to announce Thor," says Gregg, who continued his run as Agent Coulson into The Avengers where his character was killed at the hands of Loki and his sceptre. The #CoulsonLives movement was born and gained so much traction that Gregg was hired for what would end up being the first of many Marvel TV shows to spawn off across numerous networks including ABC, Netflix, Hulu, and Freeform.

The closing announcement triggers an onslaught of emotions from the cast, with Ming-Na Wen becoming teary-eyed to the point of Iain De Caestecker offering up his sleeve for her to wipe her eyes. "The people behind the cameras also contribute so much," says Wen, who is set to appear at D23 Expo next month alongside Robert Downey, Jr. both of whom will be inducted as Disney Legends.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also served as a platform for new break-out stars including Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Gabriel Luna, who appeared in Hall H earlier that day to promote his role in the new Terminator: Dark Fate film and will be reprising his role as Ghost Rider in his own Hulu series.

The panel took time to play montages from each season to show the wide array of stories and characters throughout its run. Bennet remembers the difficulty of shooting the scene where her character Daisy Johnson first got powers. There was a tremendously technical aspect to shooting her getting thrown back and it all happened right after she had to play a crying emotionality due to the death of Agent Tripp. "By the time we were shooting me getting my powers, I was crying for real, out of frustration."

The relationship between Fitz and Simmons has been another core aspect of the show since the beginning. As De Caestecker and Henstridge look back on the time they had to play large portions of their arcs apart from one another, such as when "Fitz" was absent in favour of his evil doppelgänger "Leopold," De Caestecker sings to the audience, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone." He raves about getting to work alongside Henstridge for so much of their time together and how familiar it's become to him. "You were great at that part, though," adds Henstridge, in reference to his Leopold character which marked a significant departure from his usual material.

Fans still have plenty to look forward to, as Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to air the remaining episodes of season 6 (Fridays on ABC) and will air season 7 in summer of 2020. Hopefully the cast will get to grace the Comic Con stage one last time before their final curtain call.

Watch the full Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel here: