In an announcement at the recent Disney Investors Event, Marvel confirmed more details about the Samuel L. Jackson series they announced in September. Secret Invasion…

It is this dynamic, established with a familiar snarky wit, that has allowed the characters to grow increasingly complex. Here is a group who are stuck with each other, but would also die with each other, as they hide out in underground bunkers or their perpetually clocked spy plane. Even in a world where there is always a “solve”, actions have real and lasting consequences, and guilt is a recurrent motivation – exactly the dynamic that Buffy mined so well.

“For the long-term fans, it’s a really big pay-up and it’s really, really fun… When you’ve done six seasons and that many hours of TV, it’s pretty hard on the writers to think what else do we do, and they killed it. Season seven is a really, really fun one.”

Sci Fi Fidelity Podcast: Agents of SHIELD Showrunners Talk Season 6 Our genre television podcast hosts talk to Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon and Jeff Bell…

Fortunately, the series has not lost its edge; in fact it feels much tighter, like a season 4 “pod” from the Ghost Rider days that most remember fondly. Roles have shifted and the scope has broadened, but the rebuilding of the SHIELD organization feels like a logical next step in a story that allows this strong ensemble cast to really highlight each character’s evolution.

We went into these seasons knowing that there would be some groundbreaking or earth shattering storytelling going on in the films, and so our approach was always to avoid it, for multiple reasons. We decided to be “pre-snap,” as we say, mostly because of scheduling concerns or fluid scheduling ideas. We didn’t want in any way to step on anything they were doing, so the safest bet was to avoid it completely.

As interconnected as Agents of SHIELD was with Marvel’s films in the show’s earliest days, Gregg said, it’s by carving out its space within the MCU and drawing on unprotected pieces of source material that the series has been able to set itself apart.

“I always think of that thing, you know, find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. I think that’s Phil Coulson,” he added. “He loves this stuff. And like me, he shows up to do a job and it just keeps getting better and more interesting and then incredible people show up and it’s beyond his wildest dreams.”

I really just tried to forget an awful lot of traumatic, horrible stuff and terrible secrets from around the universe that he just doesn’t know yet. I tried to go back to a more naive, innocent place, which was not easy for me or Phil. We’re both jaded by the universe at this point.

‘Agents of SHIELD’: Clark Gregg on His ‘Disturbing’ New Character & What’s to Coming Season 6 (Exclusive) Phil Coulson is dead… so who’s that guy…