'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD' Renewed

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD fans can take a deep breath now, as Marvel has renewed the ABC show for a new season at 13 episodes.

The show is about to enter its sixth season next year, but it seems Disney is confident in the show going forward, so it gave the show the green light on more episodes. That's a nice boost of confidence for the show and should give the writers a chance to extend storylines from this one into next season without having to worry that it could be cancelled.

That sixth season will differ a bit from past seasons. For starters, the season isn't debuting until the summer of 2019 as opposed to the normal fall season which it occupied in the past. The show didn't get renewed for a full 22 episode order either, renewed for 13 episodes only. ABC could renew it for additional episodes or just go with a similarly small season 7, but that remains to be seen.

Showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen weren't sure that the show would be renewed, so they wrote the season 5 finale as the series finale in case it didn't.

"We'll never end something without the potential for more story," Tancharoen said. "That's how we've ended every season because, whenever we've come to the end of all the seasons past, we go into that mostly not knowing until the very last minute, so we're basically doing the same thing to close out Season 5. It can fit well as a possible series finale, and it can fit well as just another season's end."

Whedon added, "You always want to leave the idea that there's more stories, it's a question of whether or not we will tell them. We have our end, and we'll stick to it regardless, and we think it'll work either way."

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD returns next year.