Marvel's
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns tomorrow night from the winter break with a brand new story arc. When we last left off, it was revealed that
AIDA had replaced
Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) with a robotic duplicate, known as a
Life Model Decoy. While it will probably take a few episodes to find out when the switch happened, Wen revealed in an interview with EW that part of the process came from when AIDA had access to May's brain patterns earlier in the season.
“One of the key factors about an LMD is that, right now, AIDA has created a replica of May using all her brain data that they downloaded when she was dying.” she revealed.
This isn't the first time Wen has played a different version of May; season 2 saw the character of Agent 33 get stuck with May's physical appearance. For Wen, playing an LMD was a little easier, seeing as the android is technically still May.
“For me, when I was playing LMD May, it’s not very different from playing the real May, so the challenge was keeping track of what’s going on, who’s who, and how to somehow find little moments [to differentiate her]. You could have twins that are identical, and yet you’ll always find a little something that’s a little different, so that’s what I try to incorporate into it.”
Of course, there will be some differences, namely that the show will explore a budding romance between an unwitting Coulson and the fake May.
“It was a real clever way for the writers to come up with a way to fulfill the Philinda fans’ fantasies,” she said,
“and also delve further into May, because she doesn’t open up about much. It’s an interesting way to look into her mind through Robo-May.”
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns with "Broken Promises". Coulson is unaware of a dark secret May is hiding, even as the two grow closer; AIDA is determined to find the Darkhold.
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.