While out celebrating the VES Awards last week, Clark Gregg touched upon a few of the key talking points about his show's sophomore season while talking to Collider. At the moment, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on its mid-season hiatus, but, according to Gregg, it hasn't been much of a holiday for the show's cast and crew. "We didn't have time off," he jokes. "We've been going all along, we've just been banking episodes."
It appears this bulk-filming approach has stemmed from the introduction of the Inhumans during Season 2's mid-season finale - which has, in turn, increased the pressure on the visual effects team. "These guys were working on those effects up until the moment it aired," Gregg claims, "Now they get a little breathing room to try and catch-up." They appear to have plenty of work on their plate though, with the actor claiming that the episodes that follow the mid-season finale "will only top that" in the build-up to the big season finale - and "whatever things we might crossover with."
Moving onto other topics, Gregg attributes a lot of the show's recent success to the development of the original six characters, along with the welcome introduction of several new ones - such as Adrianne Palicki's 'Mockingbird' and Kyle Maclachlan's 'My Hyde'. "There's this really great ensemble around us," he says, before hinting towards "some very cool new people" to be introduced in the near-future - one of whom will be Edward James Olmos' 'Robert Gonzalez'.
Gregg also touches upon the show's swelling international fanbase, its ratings and DVR peformance and "the giant story that Marvel's telling" - all of which you can check out in the full interview. He inevitably then moves on to the big topic at hand - the depiction of the Inhumans on the show...
"The thing about Inhumans - and I know who the Inhumans are with Attilan - I don't know if that's how they're going to do them. I was very excited when I saw that movie get announced... There are people who evolve differently, and some people think that's okay and a blessing for our species. And there are those who think they need to be put down, which feels very topical to me. It's not a topic that was necessarily available to us - and now it seems to be."
From this, it appears the show is heading in its own direction with the Inhumans. Gregg's reference to the upcoming Phase 3 movie suggests that Marvel will instead choose to introduce Black Bolt and the traditional Inhuman society in their own feature film. In the meantime, the show will most likely do nothing more than tease the existance of Attilan - instead focusing on the Earth-bound Inhumans with superhuman abilities, such as Skye and Raina.
What do you guys think of this approach? Let us know with your thoughts in the comments! The actor/director also goes on to talk briefly about Coulson's possible future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a new movie he is writing. You can check out the full interview below: