How 'Agents of SHIELD' Used Ming-Na Wen's Real-Life Injury

When it comes to SHIELD agents, few are as deadly or bad ass as Agent Melinda May. And when the actor who plays her had a major knee injury while filming stunts, the ass kicking didn't stop.

Star of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Ming-Na Wen tore her ACL while filming Season 4, and even though she was still recovering during production of the new season she didn't skip a beat. But the writers managed to incorporate Wen's injury into the new storyline.

Wen told TVLine she was able to continue filming thanks to her "really great [physical therapy], a wonderful brace, and an incredible stunt team that works their choreography to cater to my injury. And also the writers wrote it in!"

After the team was kidnapped by mysterious agents who sent them forward in time to a destroyed chunk of planet Earth ruled by Kree overlords, May came to with a protruding pipe stabbing through her leg.

The injury has affected the character in the series, though she remains a formidable threat to her enemies. She's already taken down someone who threatened the lives of her teammates, and she's set to go up against a (fractured) planet of bugs who want to eat her alive.

The fifth season of Agents of SHIELD has made some major changes to the series, shifting away from spy-fi action and superheroics. Now it's about prophecy, aliens, and time-travel.

"I think it's incredible how imaginative our writers can be in not keeping the show stagnant," Wen said. "This could so easily be one of those shows that repeats itself as far as the formula of, 'We're on a mission… and now we're on another mission.' Instead it's really grasping hold of these characters and finding ways to tell their relationships, but through these fantastical storylines with aliens and Kree and roaches and time travel…. I love it."

Agents of SHIELD's new episode, "Together or Not At All," airs Friday, January 12 on ABC.