Agents of SHIELD Series Finale Is Now Being Filmed

Earlier today, Marvel Television boss Jeph Loeb announced Agents of SHIELD will end with its seventh season, scheduled to air sometime next year. Now, the show's Hall H panel at San Deigo Comic-Con is underway a pretty big revelation has already been made: the series finale is about to head into production. As Loeb leads the cast and thousands of fans in attendance through a retrospective of the show up until now, series showrunner Jed Whedon revealed filming on the series is nearly complete. With the magic of television, production is expected to last a week or two before it wraps and gets sent to the various post-production teams.

"The simplest answer is so that we can end on our terms, really," Loeb told Deadline about the show's cancellation. "How many shows do you know that just suddenly ended, and you feel like, but wait a minute, there was more. Yes, in the chronology of this is we thought Season 5 was the end. If you go back and you look at the end of that season, it is written that way. Actually, the last episode of that season is called "The End.""

"Honestly, we thought we were turning out the lights and going home when we got a call from ABC the said the material is so strong, do you think you have another season, do you think you have another 13 because we sort of like this idea of doing it again."

Much like the sixth season currently airing, Season Seven is expected to be a shorter 13-episode to wrap everything up nice and tight. Though a premiere date has yet to be set, it's missing from ABC's Fall release schedule, meaning it will likely debut in the same timeslot as Season Six did.

"From what I've learned we've been able to do things as radical, and I mean radical in the best artistic way, as Legion and as romantic, and I mean that in the most artful way, as Agent Carter," Loeb said of the lessons he's learned from SHIELD. "You really get a sense of how this catalog of characters has existed for 75 years. It's because each one of those voices and the way that they're told, and if you're a comic book fan, you know this, but if you're a television person, you're going, wow, these all feel different, and yet, it all feels like it's part of the same world."

What's been your favorite season of the show so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to talk all things SHIELD!

Agents of SHIELD airs Friday nights on ABC beginning at 8/7 p.m. Central.