Warning: Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.
Almost everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned up for Avengers: Infinity War. So…where was SHIELD?
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The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division first appeared in Iron Man, in the form of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), an agent who had an interest in what Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) was up to. SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) was the man responsible for bringing the Avengers together in the first place, and their shadowy command structure was a big part of the plot in the first Avengers movie.
SHIELD continued to play a major role in the Marvel movies right up until Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The first movie released after Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD premiered on ABC, the film essentially dismantled the agency, rendering them mostly invisible in the movies and presenting new challenges to the cast of the show.
Since the TV series started, the agency has appeared briefly and infrequently in the movies. So…did they show up to the biggest Marvel party yet?
…Kind of.
Throughout most of the movie, the only government officials we saw were a group of military higher-ups headed by Thunderbolt Ross. No SHIELD.
After the movie ended, though, in the post-credits sequence, there was an appearance by Nick Fury and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). They were navigating the New York streets following the attack by the Black Order in the movie’s first act and looking for more intel. After objects appear in the sky over Wakanda, the pair are almost hit by a car skidding out of control. The driver, they would discover, had simply vanished. Before the pair of SHIELD agents also vanished, they sent out a distress signal…!
Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel’s biggest film to date, is set to hit theaters now, one week earlier than its original premiere date on May 4. Marvel will follow the film up with Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, and Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019. The sequel to Avengers: Infinity War is still without a title, and it will arrive next year on May 3.