Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Loeb, Bell & Whedon On Fury’s Toolbox, It’s All Connected, Hydra & More

Secrets are the name of the game when it comes to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the mid-season premiere was chock full of them.

To help sort through who’s keeping secrets from who, we had the opportunity to sit down with Marvel Studio’s head of Television Jeph Loeb and Executive Producers Jed Whedon & Jeffrey Bell about the episode. You can catch the first part of the chat with press here.

Wondering what’s inside Fury’s Toolbox? What about where Hydra went? We’ve got the inside line on these questions and more.

If you haven’t seen the most recent episode yet, consider this your spoiler warning.

On if Bobbi and Mac are Hydra, or if the hunt for Fury’s toolbox is Hydra related.

Jed Whedon: It’s not wrong to assume it. We’ve all been burned by Hydra before. We’re a little shell-shocked.

Jeffrey Bell: And clearly we want you to think, “Oh my God, could they be Hydra?”

Jeph Loeb: Think as we have been doing all season. The idea is to create enough tension that you want to come back and ask those questions. We want “S.H.I.E.L.D.” to be the show, as we do all Marvel Television, but we want them to be the show where you are caught unexpected.

On the current status of Hydra after the team is rather efficient in killing multiple heads and if Hydra is really a threat any longer.

Jeph Loeb: They own a chain of soup and salad places that are pretty awesome.

Jeffrey Bell: I was going to say Radio Shack, but as you can see, they’ve also been shut down.

Jeph Loeb: Or have they? Hydra’s always been played as, or at least we’ve been playing it in modern times as they’re almost like cells and so there’s a lot of them and as they always say, you cut off one head and other… How many?

Jeffrey Bell: Two more.

Jeph Loeb: Many more grow, so in our mind, this was an impressive feat Coulson pulled off, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that Hydra is done.

Jed Whedon: Yeah, will they ever be done? Their logo’s too cool to ever go away.

Jeph Loeb: It’s true. And then there’s Grant Ward.

On references to Baron Strucker in “Aftershocks” and if that’s an Easter Egg, or is it suggesting maybe some upcoming story synergy with Avengers: Age Of Ultron?

Jed Whedon: It might suggest that.

Jeffrey Bell: Wouldn’t that be cool?

Jed Whedon: I know, it’d be cool. It’s one Universe, so there is some ripple.

Jeph Loeb: Hashtag #ItsAllConnected

On if the team members have a rift to the reaction of the Inhumans, with Simmons being so on one side?

Jed Whedon: We can see that Simmons had an emotional reaction to the loss of Tripp. The realities of the world they’re living in now are starting to become much more complicated. We saw at the beginning of the season that Coulson was already dealing with greys he hadn’t had to deal with before. He was always a don’t leave a man behind kind of guy. He’s already having to deal with something else, and no we’re opening up another aspect to that. A whole other set of greys. What is this power? What is too much power? What is it like for your friend to have it? And have we opened Pandora’s Box by pursuing all of this. Truthfully, there wouldn’t be aliens to invade in Avengers if they hadn’t been experimenting with the cube. There’s a lot of questions of what’s the cause and what’s the effect.

Jeffrey Bell: You wouldn’t need Captain America if there weren’t bad people doing other things. Chicken or egg. It’s a really good argument for our characters to have, and to see who falls on which side of that without escalating into some sort of Civil War, future thing. On a personal character level—

Jeph Loeb: He’s saying that in a metaphorical sense.

Jed Whedon: But bringing that up, I’d also say it’s safe to say that this question will constantly be a part of the universe.

Jeffrey Bell: We now have a power person on our team.

Jed Whedon: And it’s never going to be answered.

Jeph Loeb: One of the things that really makes the Marvel Universe different from other genre stories, and it’s one of the things that people are still learning about is when they think about “comic books” the idea is many people assume we live in a world where super powered people fly out everywhere or are bursting out at the seams, and that is very much what made the Marvel Universe the Marvel Universe in publishing, was that suddenly a fight could break out on the street at any moment. When you look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s a much more contained idea. And people will powers are very special in that way in that if you look at Tony Stark, he’s a man who built a suit and so he has no particular gift or enhancement himself. When you look at Thor, he is — at least in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — we consider him more of an alien than we do somebody who has a magic hammer. And so now you get down to really who has powers and abilities? Steve Rogers is someone who went through a program in the military, changed himself through a serum and has now got Captain America’s abilities. You pervert that a little bit and add some Gamma Rays and you wind up with The Hulk. That’s it folks.

Jed Whedon: And also I would add to it, that it’s also an internal struggle. The Hulk is an example of someone who doesn’t really want this and struggles with it. It’s not just a philosophical discussion of are these people good for us, are they bad for us, what is too much power but these people are dealing with it internally and that’s some of the stuff we’re going to explore in this season.

Jeffrey Bell: Right, and we have Raina who wanted this her whole life and got something and Skye who didn’t want it and got something and so how does each character react to that is… we think interesting.

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So what say you ComicBook.com fans? Excited for the rest of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments below!