While Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s big takeaway from Comic-Con was the announced inclusion of Ghost Rider in the show's fourth season, there are still a lot of hanging threads from the end of last season to deal with. One of the biggest factors is the inclusion of Life Model Decoys, teased in the last scene of the season finale. According to executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, despite Ghost Rider's background being rooted in mysticism, the show is making a concerted effort to blend the seemingly separate world of magic with the grounded basis of science.
"You'll see this in the movies that are coming," said Whedon at Comic-Con this past weekend. "In Thor, they famously said, 'Magic is just science we don't understand.' The MCU started with Iron Man, who is a guy who built a suit -- a smart guy built a suit. And then when you put Thor into that world, it started to be like, 'How are these things going to work?' And they worked! So they started to open up into the world of the fantastic, and we will be doing that this year in terms of sort of trying to blend the two and trying to see if there are things we don't understand, why, and then meanwhile we're building things that we do understand, that maybe we start to lose our understanding of them."
The greater MCU (on film) also plans to tackle this subject in more detail with films like Doctor Strange, and it seems like a natural progression for Agents to explore the same topic in a different capacity. "[How to blend these subjects] is exactly what our team may be asking as they encounter something like Ghost Rider. We'll basically be trying to science why," Tancharoen added.
"I think that we're going to slowly start to develop some very advanced technology this season, and maybe -- as that becomes more advanced and we have strange people… possessed people -- those things somehow merge down the line," Whedon continued. "We've dealt with normal people who want to… be more than just a man, like Mike Peterson. With Coulson, he has a robot hand," Tancharoen explained. "Then we meet [Holden] Radcliffe, who's definitely into body modifications. This is just sort of a progression and extension of that."
Coming back to that final scene, a lot of people noticed the name of Radcliffe's LMD: AIDA. That name is famously used by a sentient computer in Marvel's 'Squadron Supreme' comic. When asked if we may see more elements from Squadron in season 4, Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb, gave a very brief, but knowing response. "Let's just say nothing is off the table."
Are you excited for these new elements in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Sound off below!
About The Author:
Matt is a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, and has been a fan of superheroes since he picked up his first comic book issue as a child. While he works as a professional musician, Matt has a massive passion for comic books, films and heroes, along with participating in discussion and debate with the CBM community.