WonderCon Anaheim 2018 moved ABC’s flagship Marvel series, “Agents of SHIELD” to its’ largest venue for the first time ever on Saturday, March 24. With a packed house in attendance, the series celebrated its’ recent milestone of 100 episodes with its’ massive cast.
Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb opened the panel by addressing the crowd of Marvel fans about the show’s recent 100 episode mark, which was interrupted by Jeff Ward (Deke), who wandered on stage looking dazed. Chloe Bennet then quickly dragged him away, explaining to the crowd that, “He’s new here.”
Loeb then led the crowd in a chant of “We Want More!” “We need the folks at ABC to hear us,” Loeb said. Then, the show’s cast took the stage. Bennet, Ward, Ming-Na Wen, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons and Natalia Cordova-Buckley arrived, followed by executive producers Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancheroen and Jeffrey Bell.
Notably absent was Clark Gregg, who at the time of the panel was in Washington DC joining in the “March for Our Lives.” A video message from Gregg introduced a lengthy sizzle reel recapping the greatest moments from the last five seasons of the show. Bennet later recorded the crowd cheering “We Miss You, Clark!” from her iPhone camera and later, Gregg called her phone on FaceTime and briefly addressed the crowd.
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The panel concluded with a unique clip from the show’s upcoming March 30th episode: The ending of the episode. Loeb teased that fans would have to tune in to see how the show begins. Check out our recap of “Rise and Shine” for the details!
Other moments from the panel:
Bennet was asked about the evolution of her character from Skye to Daisy: “When I first got the part, it was Skye, the degenerate who lives in her van, and they looked at me and said, ‘She’s perfect!'” Bennet also said that she discovered her character would be Daisy Johnson based on a fan’s blog who correctly predicted the reveal of her character.
Elizabeth Henstridge revealed her personal funniest moment from the set. In an early season 1 episode, the cast had to wear special clothing to make it appear as if they were being viewed through an X-Ray. “And then Iain comes out of his trailer wearing this clear clothing that stuck to all the different parts of his body!” Henstridge laughed. “What she’s saying is that I have the body of a twelve year-old,” Caestecker said.
An audience member asked the cast what their favorite Marvel film is. Virtually the entire panel agreed on “Black Panther.” Ward said, “I was telling Clark that ‘Black Panther’ was my favorite Marvel movie and he looked at me and said, ‘Avengers was good, too!'”
Whedon and Tancheroen discussed their inspiration for writing the scene in which Deke arrives in present day Earth and enters a bar. “Deke had a virtual bar in the future,” Whedon said. “And so we thought if he was in a real bar, he would probably be disappointed with what beer really tasted like. So, the next logical thing was Zima.”
Bennet was asked what her hope for her character is. “I really want her to have a boyfriend who doesn’t die and isn’t a Nazi. She needs to Netflix and chill.”
Agents of SHIELD airs Fridays at 9pm on ABC. Stay tuned for more “Agents of SHIELD” coverage from WonderCon, including interviews with the cast and creators!