Agents of SHIELD Sneak Peek Teases Avengers: Endgame Connection

Just a week from the release of its final season, Agents of SHIELD released an extended sneak peek from the season’s first episode. In that sneak peek, the agents — who have found themselves in 1931, mind you — have a quick chat about their theories on time travel. The first theory, brought up by Agents Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) and SHIELD Director Alphonso Mackenzie (Henry Simmons), deals with the go-to theory of many: the butterfly effect. If you manage to travel back in time, you better not disturb as much as a butterfly because that disturbance could send ripples throughout time.

That’s when Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward) brings up another theory, one in which he compares to a running stream. As Shaw explains it in layman’s terms, you can throw a stick in the stream, and the water will continue to flow. After you keep throwing sticks in the stream, eventually it will build a dam and clog. While in the past, you can make enough small adjustments so that the future doesn’t change, though you can get to a point where you make so many decisions — or one big one, hint hint — that could change the future forever.

Does that sound familiar? In reality, it’s not all too different than the time travel laws laid out in Avengers: Endgame. As the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) once explained, all of time is a stream. If you make a drastic choice in the past — such as removing one of the Infinity Stones — that point in time will splinter off from the mainstream and create an entirely new timeline.

Now, we’re not suggesting Swinton pops up in show by any means, but the sneak peek but does seem to at least hint at a larger connection to the movie side of things than we’ve seen in the past few seasons — especially as the agents travel through time. We could go down the rabbit hole of how Agents of SHIELD timelines have deferred from the one we’ve seen in movies, but that might be best served on a different day.

Agents of SHIELD Season Seven debuts Wednesday, May 27th while Avengers: Endgame can be streamed on Disney+ now.

Do you think SHIELD will make at least one more connection to the larger MCU in its final season? If so, how do you hope it goes down? Think it over and let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!