"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Cast Reunites at NYCC to Celebrate the Legacy of Marvel’s First TV Team

Thirteen years after “Coulson lives" electrified this very stage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned to New York Comic Con with Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, and Chloe Bennet trading war stories and warm laughs in a family-style reunion moderated by Ashley V. Robinson. Skipping the salty anecdotes, the trio celebrated what really defined the series: a cast-and-crew bond forged at TV speed, movie-sized ambition on a weekly clock, the emotional farewell that Season 5 was meant to be, and a pride in how S.H.I.E.L.D. translated Marvel ideas into character-first television.

“It was 12-plus years ago that I came on this stage to say it," Clark Gregg recalled about the legendary New York Comic Con “Coulson Lives" moment. He thanked the fans who made a weekly series possible. The energy of seeing each other again, and the audience, set a playful tone from the start of the panel. And even though it’s been five years since they last worked together, the trio quickly clicked back into their old camaraderie.

The trio painted an unglamorous, very real picture of superhero TV production. Eight pages a day was common. Multiple units ran at once. “We’d pass each other on golf carts, changing wardrobe between setups," Bennet laughed. Wind machines and green-screen days could be mortifying, but the cast’s competitiveness and trust pushed the work forward. Wen and Bennet praised each other’s stunt chops; Gregg and Wen shouted out the stunt team and crew who made the show’s action possible. Table reads were “bonding moments," the rare time everyone and the writers were in a room together before diving back into the machine. A table read also led to one of Bennet’s most embarrassing moments in front of network executives, pronouncing “colonel" phonetically.

Fans in the room remembered that Season 5 was designed as a goodbye, right down to an episode literally titled “The End." “Saying farewell that year felt right and heartfelt," Gregg said. But the series’ late-breaking renewals for Seasons 6 and 7 gave them the chance to craft a true finish. Bennet added that those emotional scenes, especially between Daisy and Coulson, were cathartic because everyone thought they might be the last.

Asked about the show’s evolving relationship to the larger MCU, the cast emphasized that any perceived distance arrived gradually and without hard feelings. What mattered, they said, was how S.H.I.E.L.D. learned to thrive on its own terms—digging into deep-cut characters, threading Easter eggs, and innovating within TV timelines. “Considering our resources and time frames, I think we adapted Marvel ideas as well as anyone," Bennet said, noting that the writers often pivoted on the fly when film-side plans shifted. Gregg fondly remembered early crossovers (like Sif’s appearance) but believes the show “really soared once we were charting our own course."

Pressed to pick favorite runs, the panel gravitated to the “three-pod" structure of Season 4 — Ghost Rider, LMD, and The Framework — as a sweet spot for serialized TV world-building. Wen reflected on the challenge (and fun) of playing variations of May with even tighter emotional control in the LMD arc, while Bennet highlighted the thrill of big, practical set-pieces and stunt days.

Multiple audience members shared stories of watching the series with their kids during the pandemic, and Gregg visibly lit up, pointing out his own daughter in attendance — proof, he said, that S.H.I.E.L.D. fostered real community. The cast also admitted to being caretakers for one another: Bennet, who started in her early 20s, said the set became a blueprint for how television should run — “a high-functioning production where every department was locked in."

On the evergreen “return to the MCU?" question, all three expressed affection for their characters and left the door open, with no news to share. What they could promise was gratitude: to a “small but mighty" fanbase, to crews who pulled off weekly movie-scale ambitions, and to a show that, by hours alone, built one of Marvel’s richest character tapestries.

All 7 seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are streaming on Disney+.