SDCC 2019: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S7 To Be Final Season

Amidst all the news coming out of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, here’s one for the bad news, good news pile: Marvel has officially announced that after next summer’s season seven of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the show will end.

Karey Burke, president of ABC Entertainment, had these appreciative words to say about the show:

Agent Coulson is one of the most beloved cinematic heroes of our time, and we’re so glad to have spent 7 seasons with him and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they saved the world from countless unimaginable big bads. I am so impressed with the eternally fresh, heart-pounding, and emotional stories the writers and creative team at Marvel Television brought to life that led S.H.I.E.L.D. to be the longest-running Marvel series to-date.

And Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb told Deadline before the show’s nostalgic and exciting Hall H debut,

When you know [the show is ending], you can take greater risks, of life and death. Those kinds of decisions suddenly now are real on the table because you’re not playing how do we undo this when we get to the next season. You’re playing that this is going to be the end of the story.

Hmm. While we’re not super-excited about the “and death” part of that description, we do see what he’s saying. The stakes can definitely be raised for the final season of a show like SHIELD, though it’s honestly hard to imagine that after the last couple of seasons! Loeb also said in his official statement that it will be a “bittersweet” goodbye to “Marvel Television’s flagship series”, going on to praise the fans for their dedication to the show:

Our success is a true testament to the extraordinary fans and we remain forever indebted to them for their endless support. We want to end on a very high note and complete the incredible saga after seven amazing seasons and 136 hours of quality television.

But thankfully we don’t have to say goodbye to the show and its fantastic cast just yet. All of season seven is still to come, and season six still has four episodes left to go. (For more on that, as well as a sneak peek of the rest of season six, check out this news.) And though we’ll no doubt miss seeing our SHIELD team on screen, seven seasons is a good, long run for any show. Each season brought us new, crazy, fantastic adventures, and now we can trust that this amazing writing team will end it on a high note, as Loeb promised.