Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Star Believes Fans Will Be Satisfied With Series Finale

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Henry Simmons, who has played fan-favorite Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie since its sophomore season in 2014, expects “everyone will be happy” when the series ends after seven seasons later this year. The series finale — previously described by Simmons’ co-star Chloe Bennet, who plays Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. Quake, as an action-packed and “big, big episode” — closes out Marvel’s longest-running television series as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Mack and his team, including Quake, Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward), and super-advanced Life-Model Decoy Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), race against time in 1931 New York to prevent a disastrous past, present and future.

“I think so. I think everyone will be happy,” Simmons told Collider when asked if fans will be satisfied by the time S.H.I.E.L.D. completes its final mission. “There are gonna be some fans that still want more, and I hope that’s the case because you wanna leave people wanting more. But the way it wraps up, I can’t say everyone’s gonna be satisfied because I don’t think everyone will be satisfied, but I think everyone will accept the reality of the situation. I’ll leave it at that.”

From super-spy espionage set against the backdrop of an expansive universe populated by superheroes to an adventure series travelling through both time and space — pitting the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew against HYDRA, the alien Kree, and the synthetic Chronicoms — Simmons says his twisty time on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. went in “unfathomable” directions:

“It was very simple, we had one enemy, which was HYDRA, and it was pretty much about trying to stop them from having domination, but then everything changed. It’s a credit to the writers,” he said. “Who could predict we’d be in space in the future, and all of these other things. It really went in so many different directions that were unfathomable. There was no way in the world that anybody could ever have imagined anything like that.”

Rising through the ranks of the organization that has been steered by such leaders as Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), both pivotal characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was similarly “completely unexpected.”

“When I went in there, I was just pretty much a mechanic. Gradually, he started fighting, and then things started picking up, and he became the leader of everyone,” Simmons said. “It’s a heck of a compliment because the writers and the producers felt that I was capable of being the leader of the team, and that meant a lot to me, from an actor’s point of view. It’s very different from running around and doing things, and being given directions. You’re actually the one who’s giving the directions to everyone, you’re driving all of the scenes, and you have to carry the emotional weight of the team, as opposed to just your individual self. To me, it was just one heck of a compliment to be given that responsibility, and I absolutely enjoyed it.”

Since wrapping the role in July, it “took me a little bit [of time] to put it down,” Simmons added. “It’s one of my favorite characters, and maybe the most favorite that I’ve ever played because there was a range of things, with comedy, action, drama and so many things, involved in that character and the progression of the character. It actually is my favorite character that I’ve ever played.”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7 airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.