Why Is ‘Agents of SHIELD’ Ending With Season 7?

This is the final mission for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” The Season 7 premiere on Wednesday will kick off the final episodes of the series, but ABC didn’t actually cancel the superhero TV show. So why is “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” ending?

The simple answer is because the writers felt they could have a natural conclusion and wanted to do that on their own terms. Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb told Deadline that he sat down with executive producers Jed Whedon, Jeff Bell, and Maurissa Tancharoen, and they decided that they wanted to come back for one last fight.

Loeb said going into it knowing that it’s the end allows the writers to raise the stakes.

“When you know that’s what you’re doing, you can take greater risks, of life and death,” he explained. “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.”

Marvel Television hasn’t gotten the chance to write many series finales. Netflix unceremoniously canceled all five of their Marvel TV shows (including “Daredevil” and “The Punisher”) before they could wrap up properly, and the same happened to Freeform’s “Cloak and Dagger” and Hulu’s “Runaways.”

Daisy Johnson/Quake actress Chloe Bennet told TVLine that fans will have plenty of closure by the time the series finale airs later this summer. “They do a beautiful job at giving every person on this show a fitting ending. They do a really good job… but I don’t want to give anything away!” she said.

The Season 7 premiere picks up after the agents traveled to the past to stop the Chronicoms from taking over Earth and destroying S.H.I.E.L.D. They revived Coulson’s (Clark Gregg) Life Model Decoy (LMD) and set off into the 1930s. They’ll have to blend in and find a way to stop the Chronicoms in the past, but they are trying to avoid changing the timeline. In order to save S.H.I.E.L.D., they’ll have to save Hydra too.

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Season 7 premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC.