Some incredible celebrity guests attended Motor City Comic Con 2023, but the highlight of my weekend was meeting Clark Gregg! MCU fans know him best as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson of The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fame.
I’m a huge AoS fan and loved how Coulson’s character developed over the course of seven seasons. He became several different beings by the end of the series, and with Secret Invasion debuting on Disney+ in less than a month, who’s to say he’s not a Skrull too? I sat down with Clark Gregg to try to get answers to some of these burning questions!
[Editor’s Note: this interview has been edited slightly for clarity. For the full video interview, watch it below or visit The Cosmic Circus YouTube channel!]
About Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the potential return of Phil Coulson
Uday Kataria: “Since I’m such a big Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fan-”
Clark Gregg: “Hit me.”
U.K.: “-all of my questions are Marvel related. Of course, the MCU is going deep into the multiverse.”
C.G.: “Yes.”
U.K.: “Is there a chance that we see you reprise the role of Phil Coulson?”
CG: “There’s always a chance.”
U.K.: “There’s always a chance, you’d always be down to come back for more?”
C.G.: “There’s just always a chance that- I mean, you know, it’s a multiverse.”
U.K.: “That’s true. What was your favorite season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”
C.G.: “That’s a toss up, it changes. I loved the first one. I loved when we finally got to do the reveal of Hydra. That connected with Winter Soldier. I loved working with beautiful Bill Paxton. And when [Samuel L. Jackson] came back and Cobie [Smulders], that crossover was amazing. But I also really loved what the writers did with Season 4 with the three pods of AI and Ghost Rider, and then the kind of… what was it called? It was the matrix? I can’t remember now.”
U.K.: “The Framework!”
C.G.: “The Framework, thank you, yes.”
U.K.: “Yeah, I love Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4. I always tell people that it’s better than even some of the movies, it’s just so good.”
C.G.: “Thank you.”
U.K.: “And kind of following on from that, which version of Coulson was your favorite to play? Because you did technically play like three different versions of him throughout the series.”
C.G.: “You know what? I had already been this character in four or five of the movies and every filmmaker who came along changed him a little bit; the writers, the directors, and really the show did that with different seasons. And he was a guy in charge of a dysfunctional family of kind of young agents, and that’s kind of what I was doing too. It was really nice to come back to, even though he was technically an LMD, to come back to old school Coulson for the very end.”
U.K.: “Yeah, that’s how I felt too. I really loved that that parting shot of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with him and Lola.
C.G.: “Same.”
Could Phil Coulson show up in Secret Invasion?
U.K.: “And finally, Secret Invasion does release next month starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.”
C.G.: “It does? Oh.”
U.K.: “Yes. Coulson was impersonated by a Skrull already in the Captain Marvel movie.”
C.G.: “It didn’t work out so well for that guy, that Skrull, but yes.”
U.K.: “It didn’t! But was the Coulson that we knew in Avengers, do you think that he was a Skrull all along? Do you think he could come back in Secret Invasion?”
C.G.: “Well, they’ve confirmed that he was a Skrull all along, haven’t they?”
U.K.: “No, they haven’t.”
C.G.: “Okay, maybe not. No, I don’t know. No, I think he was a real life person. I can barely keep track of all the things he became, or that he might show up as some other time. But I think he was, what made him, I don’t know what, stand out or connect with the fans was the fact that he was very, very human.”
On his continued friendship with Chloe Bennet and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast
U.K.: “Yes, of course. And finally, are you still in touch with Chloe Bennet?”
C.G.: “Yeah, I text and talk to Chloe regularly. All of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast, especially the original gangsters, very, very close.”
Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ (Marvel/ABC)U.K.: “I love to hear that. Quake is one of my favorite superheroes.”
C.G.: “She’s family. She’s like a daughter to me.”
U.K.: “I’m really hoping that she, and of course Coulson, will come back to the movies at some point.”
C.G.: “Me too.”
U.K.: “All right. Thank you so much.”
C.G.: “Thank you so much.”
Full video of this interview with Clark Gregg now available on Youtube!
It was a joy to meet one of my favorite MCU actors! I’m so happy to hear that the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. family is still super close. I hope that means the dominoes will fall quickly when it comes to the series’ potential integration into the wider MCU. If one character returns to the franchise hopefully the others will too!
Yes. Coulson, Quake, and other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could return to the MCU
With the Netflix Defenders characters coming to Disney+ and films, I think the original MCU TV cast deserves the same treatment. There’s been lots of speculation about Chloe Bennet’s return as Quake in Secret Invasion, as well as other AoS cast members, but Coulson would be a natural fit. After all, Secret Invasion is just shaping up to be a higher-budget take on the same concept as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with our favorite spies teaming up to take down a threat the Avengers aren’t equipped to handle.
Clark Gregg may have been joking about Coulson being a Skrull all along, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to retcon if the MCU wants him back. In fact, the LMD arc in Season 4 reminded me a lot of Secret Invasion. And perhaps Chloe Bennet will return as Quake in Secret Invasion as well! I guess we’ll find out the truth soon enough!
There’s a lot of love for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. here at The Cosmic Circus, so we’d love to see some of these characters return. What do you think? Will Coulson, Quake, or other AoS characters return in Secret Invasion or another MCU project? Let us know on Twitter @mycosmiccircus or in The Cosmic Circus Discord!
Find out more about Motor City Comic Con 2023 here! And visit the links below for more of our past Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. coverage!
Bennet and Gregg Posts Spark More Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Return Speculation
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it’s Long Lasting Legacy
