As Agents of SHEILD‘s seventh and final season nears its end, many of the show’s cast have been reminiscing about their time on the series. Jeff Ward, who plays Deke Shaw on the show, recently had a chat with Looper and revealed he was originally cast in a much smaller role. While the actor eventually was cast and Deke and became a series regular, his journey throughout season five was unknown. In fact, he thought he was going to be killed off.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“My first 10 episodes, I didn’t know what I was doing. When I first started, I didn’t know if I was doing more than three, and then I was doing more and more and more. I just told this story, but basically, at the end of 10 there’s an explosion and I thought that Deke died. One of the assistant directors walked me into his office and showed me a wall of headshots, and there were X’s on a bunch of the headshots. It was Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton, all these great, amazing actors. He goes, ‘Don’t worry. Look at all the great people that’ve been killed off this show.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, I guess I’m dying. I didn’t know. That’s crazy.’”
Ward added, “Then they called me later that day and they said, ‘No, we’d like to have you for the rest of the season, and as a regular if we get picked up for season six.’ It was so unexpected. I was just grateful for whatever was going to happen, and it turned into something a lot bigger than it was supposed to. I’m just so lucky for that.”
Agents of SHIELD‘s two-part series finale is airing next week. You can read the official description of the episodes here: “With their backs against the wall and Nathaniel and Sibyl edging ever closer to eliminating S.H.I.E.L.D. from the history books, the agents must rely on their strengths to outsmart and outlast the Chronicoms. This is their most important fight, and it will take the help of friends and teammates, past and present, to survive.”
There are still many questions to be answered in the final episodes ranging from “Where is Fitz?” and “Is Fitz even alive?” to “Is SHIELD gone for good in the new timeline?” and “Will the team ever make it back to their original timeline?” Fans are eager to learn how things will play out for the team, and whether or nor their favorite characters will get a happy ending.
Agents of SHIELD‘s two-part series finale begins on Wednesday, August 12th, at 9 PM ET on ABC.
