Agents of SHIELD Executive Producer Reveals Why The Show Ditched Ghost Rider

When Agents of SHIELD returns from its midseason finale, it will do so without one important character from the season's first-half. The hit drama kicked off its fourth season with Ghost Rider amongst its ranks as Robbie Reyes unwittingly teamed up with SHIELD after encountering a rogue Daisy Johnson. But, by the end of last season, Ghost Rider had disappeared alongside his uncle to an unknown location. The show's cast will be busy exploring its upcoming life-model decoy storyline, but fans are still curious as to why Ghost Rider was scrapped halfway through the season. Now, the show's executive producer is giving fans the answer they've been searching for.

UP NEXT: Agents of SHIELD Co-Star Teases Ghost Rider's Comeback

In a recent interview with TV Line, executive producer Jeffrey Bell said they did away with Ghost Rider (for the time being) because of practical concerns. "[Ghost Rider is] a lot for 22 [episodes], especially with everything else that we like and care about on the show," he explained. "It would feel like one flavor over a long period of time, but we've certainly left it open" to revisit.

The producer also admitted that budgeting issues also made it prudent from them to axe Ghost Rider. The CGI work put into Ghost Rider obviously took more time and money than other pieces of Agents of SHIELD, and those "financial considerations" needed to be addressed. Moving forward, the show's next arc will use less tech and hopefully bring as much excitement to the table as Ghost Rider did.

"This year we're getting to play with a lot of the toys that we've been hoping to play with," Jed Whedon, showrunner, said. "[LMDs are] something that we've been wanting to get to, and now we're finally able to get to."

The Agents of SHIELD midseason premiere episode will be titled "Broken Promises" and start the LMD story arc. Here's the episode synopsis:

"Though Coulson and May are growing closer, Coulson remains unaware of the dark secret May is hiding beneath the surface. Meanwhile, Aida is unrelenting in her search for the Darkhold."

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD stars Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Agent Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe.

Guest starring are Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, Jason O'Mara as Director Jeffrey Mace, Mallory Jansen as Aida, Parminder Nagra as Senator Nadeer, John Pyper-Ferguson as Terrence Shockley, Manish Dayal as Vijay Nadeer, Patrick Cavanaugh as Burrows, Blaise Miller as Agent Nathanson, Shari Vasseghi as Sunjna Nadeer and Bryan Keith as Zack Bynum.

"Broken Promises" was written by Brent Fletcher and directed by Garry A. Brown.

MORE: What Are Life Model Decoys? / New Marvel's Iron Fist Photos Released / Marvel's Inhumans TV Series Announced / Marvel's The Inhumans Finds Its Showrunner / Why We Love The Inhumans / How Will Marvel's Inhumans Effect Marvel's Agents of SHIELD? / Gabriel Luna Says Has Possibly Plans For Ghost Rider On Netflix / Gabriel Luna Talks Ghost Rider Joining The Defenders Or Midnight Sons / How Ghost Rider Can Move To Netflix / How Will The Inhumans TV Series Effect the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will return to ABC in 2017, airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

[H/T] TV Line