EXCLUSIVE Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. EP Talks Secret Warriors, Civil War, Last Week’s Shocking Death & More

Earlier today, ComicBook.com released an excerpt from our interview with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Executive Producer Jeff Bell, discussing Lash’s origin and mission.

We’re pleased now to present our full interview with Bell, in which he talks about the very special “4,722 Hours” episode, Secret Warriors, last week’s shocking death, Coulson’s relationship with Rosalind Pike, and possible connections to Captain America: Civil War.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

This week’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the big “what happened to Simmons on the alien planet?” episode.

JB: I’m hearing it’s about that a bit, yes.

How would you describe the story and the tone of this episode? What kind of story should fans be expecting to see?

JB: It’s an outside the box story for us. We’re spending much more time with a single character than we usually do. We’re going to a different world for part of it. It has a very different look, and feel, and music, and everything than what we’ve done before. I think you can call it “a very special episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” And use that little voice.

Will the entire episode be devoted to Simmons’ flashback?

JB: I don’t want to get too specific, because I want people to be able to just enjoy what happens. I’ll say there’s certainly a bit more than usual. We’ve done flashback episodes before, and this one’s a little different.

She told Fitz, when she came back, that she had been hunted while she was on that other planet. Can you hint at all about what kind of entities or beings may have been after her while she was on that other planet?

JB: I won’t. No. As much as possible, I’d like people to just experience it in the episode. I’m afraid to tease is to spoil, and I really don’t want to do that.

This sounds like a very standalone, set piece, special episode, just based on how you’ve described it.

JB: I think it is, in many ways. We spent some time on an alien planet, that’s a stretch. Tonally too, it’s…I don’t know, I think it’s lovely. It’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done. I can’t wait for people to see it.

Looking back at last week’s episode, it seems like we may have seen the last of poor Andrew. Is that it for him, might there still be more to learn?

JB: We will certainly clarify the vagaries down the road. We will definitely do that. You will know exactly what happened, and the outcome of that, and why it did in future episodes. I’m not trying to be coy so much as…it’s much more about making it emotional for our characters. Honestly, the fallout of Hunter’s decision – and how that effects May and Hunter and everybody else – is in many ways, for us as storytellers, a larger, more ongoing, more complicated set of stories to play than, “Oh my god, Andrew’s dead, which is terrible,” or “oh my god, he’s not dead, that’s good.” Those are both interesting notions, but in terms of our storytelling, how that effected May and Hunter and the other characters is more interesting.

Around the office, we’ve been discussing a theory that Lash and Andrew are connected, and that learning that Lash can transform and Andrew apparently dying in the same episode isn’t a coincidence. Is there anything to that idea?

JB: I’ve seen people have theories about a lot of those people. I’ve seen people mention him, I’ve seen people mention certain people in the ATCU. I think our job is to, if we do things right, set things up so expectations run wild one way. I did a one season show called Harper’s Island, and the whole point was, “Who’s the killer?” And the whole thing of trying to convince somebody, “Oh, it’s absolutely, positively that person” and then it’s not, that’s maybe half the fun of what we do here. So we have to set things up so that people will have different theories. Some will be right, and some will be wrong, and some people will go. “Theories about what? I was getting popcorn.”

A long way of saying, “Interesting. We’ll see what happens.”

Do enjoy watching people guess?

JB: That’s the whole point, right? Our whole job is to make you think, “Oh, its Banks,” “Oh, its Andrew,” “Oh, it’s this guy over here,” “Oh, that person’s not really dead.” That’s the fun.

At the least, it seems like Lash’s origins have been tweaked a bit from the comics. Is there still a chance we might see Orollon, or was Afterlife enough secret Inhuman city for one show?

JB: For us, in this Marvel Universe, it’s hard to have a hidden or magical city. All that’s really been established with Inhumans to date, at least, it wasn’t a city so much as a small halfway house in the middle of nowhere. If we’re going to Orollan or Attilan or any of that, because Lash’s agenda certainly tied into that, that would be a rather ambitious thing for us to undertake here on television. But Lash’s agenda can certainly remain true to what it was in the comics. I mean, if you’re someone who judges whether people are worthy or not, if you take that on yourself for a variety of reasons, I think we can connect the Lash of the comics to the Lash that we have.

So his mission may still be the same, even if he isn’t necessarily from the same hometown.

JB: Correct.

A couple episodes ago, we were shown a scene of a group in 19th century England that had possession of the monolith. Is that something we’re going to be revisiting?

JB: I would say that what happened there has not been forgotten by us. We tell it by accident.

Could it be connected S.H.I.E.L.D.’s history? After all, in the comics, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s existence goes back centuries.

JB: Right. We haven’t established anything like that. I think what we’re trying to suggest is, whether it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. or not, people have been interested in this monolith at least back that far, and they were saying it was going on since before that, so clearly it’s something ancient, and terrible, and…One of the things we like to do on our show is…a lot of stuff in the Marvel Comics, a long time ago, felt sort of magical. One of the things that the movies and we try to do is find scientific ways, or what was once viewed as myth has become grounded more in science, and the ideas that what was ritualistic in the 1800s has become more of a scientific enquiry now with S.H.I.E.L.D. There were some clues in there that I think people looking for them will see some stuff that will connect later.

Speaking of clues, in watching the episode we thought we saw a symbol carved into the door leading to the monolith, but nobody in the episode ever mentions it. Are we seeing things, or…?

JB: It would seem weird to me if people there saw something that wasn’t there [laughs].

Around the end of last season, I asked Clark Gregg about the possibility of the S.H.I.E.L.D. index being a precursor to the superhuman registration act, like the one from the Civil War comics. He seemed to think that made a lot of sense, and I was wondering what your thoughts were on that possibility.

JB: Well, you know the comics, and there is a movie coming up, and you know sometimes things connect {laughs]. That would be cool. I’d like to see that if I were a fan.

Speaking of Civil War, in the comics S.H.I.E.L.D. was part of the pro-registration, Iron Man side of the conflict. Will things follow suit for the MCU S.H.I.E.L.D., or does the presence of a public government organization like the ATCU change that dynamic?

JB: I can’t really comment on the movie at all, because I’d be killed. I don’t really know how closely the movie is replicating the comics or not, but on our show we have Inhumans, we do have a problem coming up with powered people, we do have on our show people with very strong opinions about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, and on our show that’s been an ongoing thing since setting up the idea of an index, to this rise of Inhumans, and whether people are worried about what the ATCU are doing with them, and what are we doing with them. Rosalind certainly seems to know a lot about what happened with S.H.I.E.L.D. before, and the idea of all that connecting and relating to the story moving forward, again, as a fan, that might be cool.

After the events the events of the last episode, it seems like we could be seeing a rift form with Hunter and May. How does this effect Coulson’s group a whole? Is there going to be a line drawn in the sand?

JB: I think anytime we can create genuine conflict between our characters the stories are more interesting. May is culpable in that she went there with Hunter, so she was certainly willing to do the hard deed until it went south. But people love Andrew, and the idea of Hunter endangering him for his own – was it just his own petty revenge for Bobbi? Because Coulson had said, “Go, do this,” and May was there. So I think there’s a lot of culpability that can generate a lot of conflict down the road, but there are certainly a lot of people who are going to be super pissed.

What do you think Coulson would have done if he were there? Do you think he would have been okay with Hunter’s decision to go after Ward?

JB: Well, hopefully if we’re doing our job, you’ll get to see that answer.

Could the conflict brewing here be planting seeds for what leads to Marvel’s Most Wanted?

JB: Only in that Hunter’s not S.H.I.E.L.D. For Hunter, laws are kind of suggestions, and if he’s with them he’ll follow them, and he’s always been much more a loyalist to the guy in the trenches than to any idealogy, where it feels like May is much more like Coulson, connected to the larger ideal of the organization. So it’s nothing specific about the show, it’s just who Hunter is.

Can you comment on the existence or non-existence of Coulson’s laser finger?

JB: I cannot.

Then can you talk at all about his relationship with Rosalind? He certainly seems to be interested in her in a way we haven’t seen him interested with anyone else on the show so far.

JB: In the first two seasons, Coulson’s role was largely paternal. He was the dad of the team. There’s a lot of young agents, specifically his relationship with Skye, now Daisy. He was a surrogate father, and last year we brought in her biological father, and really I think we explored that fully and in an interesting way. This season, it seemed like we needed a new dynamic for Coulson to play, so it didn’t feel like we were rehashing last season, and the idea of an adult, of a woman, of an equal, as opposed to someone that he was in more of a paternal role would be fun for Clark, as an actor, to play, but also really fun for the audience to see Coulson in a different light. Not even saying its romantic, but just its two adults who are equal, who vehemently disagree on just about everything, but kind of realize, “Oh, you’re like me, but on the other side.” And it’s a different color to play for Coulson, and Constance Zimmer is awesome, and we’ve all enjoyed having her as Rosalind and we look forward to seeing where that goes.

We’re a few episodes into the season now, and Daisy seems increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress on her caterpillars and the Secret Warriors team. What do you think she has to do to really make the Warriors a priority for Coulson?

JB: When we started talking about it last year, because we always knew she was going to be Daisy, and we’d always hoped, with the Inhumans, that we’d be building a version of that, the truth is finding people who are built and trained and capable and not insane to do that is going to be tricky. The truth is, Daisy was kind of a slacky hacker girl named Skye who, over the course of a season and a half, was trained by S.H.I.E.L.D., and grew into somebody who was competent and could do that. You drop somebody like Joey from the pilot into these skills, has no idea of the history, doesn’t know how to fight, doesn’t know how to handle a pressure cooker situation, you need a lot of the right things. I guess what we’re saying is it takes a special combination of qualities for a person to have the right skills, otherwise it would be that any powered person could do this. I think one of the things we were hoping to show is, it’s hard to find a superhero. It’s hard to find someone with the skillset and the psychological set to pull something like this off. We’re looking for people, and I think people will come along. Joey hasn’t gone away yet, and though Lincoln isn’t part of that, there are qualities to him that you’d think, “Oh, he’d be perfect,” but he hates the idea of having powers. He’s a guy that wants to help people, not fight people. For us, and I think though fans may not articulate it this way, its finding the right pieces, and the surprise and the twists and turns along the way that make it worthwhile, and so we’re trying to do that as opposed to, it’s season 3, yay, we show up with five people you don’t know and you’re not invested in who have all these skills, which I don’t think would be as satisfying.

When the Secret Warriors do come together, will they all be Inhumans, or could there still be a variety of origins the way the comic book Warriors were?

JB: I would say you certainly don’t have to be an Inhuman to be a part of it. I would say, in the Marvle Universe as it exists, people tend to be either from another planet, i.e. Thor, an accident of science, like Cap or Hulk, or have cool tech like Iron Man. Add into that mix Inhumans, it’s a way…even Ms. Marvel, in the comics, her genesis was as an Inhuman. I know the comics are relying more on Inhumans as an understandable origin for these people to have powers, and we’re telling a lot of those stories, but we also have character that we’ve seen in the past, who aren’t Inhuman who could certainly show up as part of the team, as well as characters we have not met yet. So that is a way, stupid long, overcomplicated answer to your question. No, you don’t have to be an Inhuman to be a Secret Warrior.