5 Things Agents of SHIELD Did Before the MCU

Through its seven season run, Agents of SHIELD explored a variety of themes and story arcs as the newly resurrected Agent Coulson, lead a team on various missions to fight monsters and solve mysteries. The show was initially supposed to run right alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe mainline, and tied into multiple movies. But it diverged from the main timeline in Season 2 and largely started doing its own thing. This gave the series the freedom to experiment with various storylines, bring in interesting characters, but most surprisingly, the change to do things that the MCU wouldn’t until much later.

1) Explored the Multiverse first

Marvel Studios didn’t start diving into the larger multiverse until Phase 4 as Loki Season 1 introduced the concept of the Sacred Timeline in 2021. In Season 5 of Agents of SHIELD, the agents use a device that allows them to travel through realities. They make changes to the timeline, creating a new history. The season, without mentioning the multiverse, clearly visits 2 timelines — one with the 2091 destroyed earth and the main timeline, in which Coulson (Clark Gregg) sacrifices himself. In the final season, too, they end up making multiple timelines while time-traveling.

2) S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Were the First Time Travelers

During its run, Agents of SHIELD explored a lot of different sci-fi themes and tropes inclduing time travel. The MCU didn’t address this until Avengers: Endgame, with Tony Stark and the original Avengers taking part in their “Time Heist,” where they gather the infinity stones from various points in the past to save the world. Agents of SHIELD again, beat MCU to the punch, though. Coulson and his team travel through time both in Season 5 and Season 7, visiting the years 2091, 1931, 1955, 1973, 1976, and 1982. 

3) The Inhumans

Though The Inhumans got their own TV show in Marvel’s Inhumans in 2017, the characters wouldn’t appear in an MCU movie until 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In Agents of SHIELD, the Inhumans mythology began to appear in Season 2 after Chloe Bennet’s Skye went through Terrigenesis and was revealed to be the Inhuman character Daisy Johnson/Quake. The show would also go on to explore the history of the Inhumans, detailing how rogue Kree experimented on humans to create the group of heroes. 

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4) The Darkhold

Half a decade before the Darkhold appeared in the MCU, we witness the Book of Sins wreaking havoc and corrupting people in Season 4 of Agents of SHIELD. It is first fleetingly mentioned in Episode 2, before making a full appearance in Episode 4. It was tracked down by Joseph (Kerr Smith) and Lucy Bauer (Lilli Birdsell), who are soon corrupted. A couple scientists at the Momentum Lab began experimenting on it, creating the Quantum Particle Generator. After it turns Eli Morrow (José Zúñiga) — Robby Reyes’ (Gabriel Luna) uncle — into a villain with god-like powers, Robby, as Ghost Rider, defeats him and takes the cursed book to the dark dimension.

5) Did Secret Invasion Earlier (And Better)

Humanity has always been obsessed with the idea of the other, the alien walking among them, mingling and maybe even plotting to take over by replacing humans one by one. Marvel comics took that trope and turned it into a major crossover event known as the Secret Invasion. In 2023, the MCU loosely adapted that storyline with a Disney+ series that everyone, fans and critics alike, loves to hate. Agents of SHIELD on the other hand, did the Secret Invasion plot right, and did it seven years before the MCU.

Agents of SHIELD took the original Secret Invasion storyline and adapted it into a LMD (Life Model Decoys) invasion, led by AIDA, rather than aliens. As LMDs slowly begin replacing key figures, the air is stifled with suspense, and one doesn’t quite know who to trust. The entire arc is thrilling, dramatic, and full of epic moments.