Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD star Chloe Bennet has said she’s “still low-key angry” that the series isn’t considered fully part of MCU canon — though has said that she would leap back into her role if required.
Bennet played Daisy Johnson/Skye/Quake through all seven seasons of the MCU-adjacent TV show, which aired on ABC from 2013 until 2020. The series began as a spinoff from The Avengers starring Clark Gregg’s Agent Phil Coulson, though became detached from the wider events of Marvel’s movies over time, with later years seeing it diverge rather dramatically.
The series’ exact place in Marvel canon has been hotly debated, though notably it is not included in the Disney+ “MCU Complete Timeline” section featuring every single canon MCU movie, TV series and one-off special. That’s despite other pre-existing TV series from Marvel’s Netflix era now being retroactively added, making 2015’s Daredevil canon, but Agents of SHIELD not.
“I’m still low-key angry that they don’t fully acknowledge this as canon — the real followers will understand that,” Bennet said, in an interview with Elle. “We were the first MCU TV show, and we did 130-something hour-long episodes. We spent a lot of time in people’s homes, and I spent a lot of my life playing this character and this young woman growing into her power. There’s a lot of symbolism in that, especially looking back now.”
Marvel had once discussed Agents of SHIELD as being closely connected to the movies, and afforded the series several early cameos to tease the link between it and the big screen. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury cameoed in an early episode, while Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter popped up a couple of times. But later seasons — in part to avoid clashing with Marvel’s movie plans — ventured into more standalone territory, with alternate timelines, alternate versions of Clark Gregg and an incarnation of Ghost Rider that will almost certainly be ignored when the Ryan Gosling movie rumbles along. The show ultimately wound up without acknowledging the Snap/Blip either.
All of that said, Bennet insisted she would still “totally” accept an invitation to reprise her Agents of SHIELD role in future, should Marvel come calling. “I’m obsessed with Daisy. I feel like I am Daisy. I would be so protective of her,” the actress concluded. “I would love to play her with the growth that I’ve had since I’ve had a break from the role.”
Perhaps in next year’s Avengers: Secret Wars? If not then, it’s hard to imagine when the series might ever be referenced again.
Image credit: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips
News Editor
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
