Clark Gregg Says Phil Coulson's Final Agents of SHIELD Storyline References The Avengers Death

We're less than a week away from the Agents of SHIELD premiere, which means there are only 13 episodes left of the beloves Marvel series. After Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson was killed in 2012's The Avengers, the character was revived for the series but he ultimately died again at the end of the show's fifth season. Now, Coulson is back once again as an LMD (life model decoy) but he was also built with Chronicom technology, making him much more advanced than androids we've previously seen on the show. Recently, Gregg spoke to Variety about his Marvel journey and explained why becoming an LMD for the end of the series pays tribute to his character's original death. "Since Coulson died in The Avengers, the assumption that almost everyone seemed to make when ABC announced Agents of SHIELD was that he was going to be a Life Model Decoy. So actually doing it in the final season feels like a fun wink," Variety pointed out.

"I thought so, too. You know, no one ever knew the show would go a 130-some episodes. It was never going to be like, this week Tony Stark is here! Then there was the division between Marvel TV and Marvel Cinematic on a corporate level. So the showrunners, Jed [Whedon] and Mo [Tancharoen] and Jeff Bell, had to really scour parts of the Marvel universe that weren't tied up with the incredibly elaborate plans of the cinematic [universe]. They ended up using all kinds of things: Inhumans, time travel, Ghost Rider, all these things that nobody is using, and many times to great effect. So it doesn't surprise me that at some point, like, 'Well, it's what everyone thought all along, and now he finally is one.'"

During the interview, Gregg also addressed whether he'd play Coulson again once the series was over. "This seems like a real good time to announce that … I really don't know," Gregg shared with a laugh. "Sorry. That was a little bit of quarantine sadism. I don't know anything! It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where I'd say, 'No, I'm too busy to put on whatever the latest version of the suit is and go play Phil Coulson.' I'm always thrilled when I see them changing timelines and exposing a multiverse in the cinematic [universe]. Because I think, 'Well, I've seen scenarios where I could be around!' So I really learned with this character to never say never, but I'm also really grateful for the ride that we had."

Agents of SHIELD returns on May 27th.