The final season of Agents of SHIELD has been one wild time-traveling ride that would rival TimeLord adventure or what the Avengers had to do in Endgame last year.
Comic-Con@Home, with help from the Fleet Science Ceter, featured a special panel on how the show handled time travel, time streams and the like. It included producer Jeffrey Bell, and actors Elizabeth Henstridge and Joel Stoffer (just after his rave performance in “As I Have Always Been”).
Everyone talked about how great it was to write and produce the show, and sometimes incorporate a cool science article into a plot. “That allows you to address character things in a way that other people can’t,” writer James Oliver says. “A lot of people can write about a couple having an argument, we get to put that couple inside of an alien computer where their thoughts become real and stab you in the face.”
Yes, that was from last season.
Bell also points out the cast of characters have changed a lot (just compare FitzSimmons or even Daisy from season one to now), and how it’s important to keep those arcs grounded. They also talk about how Henstridge tries to use scientific jargon as if it’s something anyone knows.
She says it’s how you say it in British, and that she’s in a family of scientists. “My stunts were the scientific jargon,” she says (although Jemma has handled at least one big gun), “and often times in the beginning FitzSimmons, which I am part of that double act, were kind of moving the story along explaining the problem and later explaining the solution which were both science-based. It was really fun because you get, as an actor, you get to play the distress and the discovery and then the discovery of the solution that’s really exciting. There’s something infectious about a character that’s so passionate about something, and believes in something.” In this case, Jemma Simmons is all about science.
By the way, her family did push medicine on her, but decided on drama instead. She’s still able to inspire a lot of young women to take up science.
There was also a discussion about the Inhumans on the show. Oliver says it’s a challenge how to make sure someone like Daisy or Elena win a fight but not always the same way. They had to learn that when their powers were on hold this season.
The panel also talked about genetic engineering and it’s not too different from computer programming, and also how mutant mice plays a role in that. It also discussed whether the Mainframe virtual reality could happen.
Stoffer also talked about how he got into his role as Enoch, who’s been around since season five. “I remember in episode 4.22, the director was Billy Gierhart, I said ‘tell me’, and he went like this (showing a tightly closed hand),” he said. “In season five, episode five, the word that stuck out for me that helped me the most was ‘sentient’. There’s a sense of feeling in this guy, but clearly, you know, there’s no human emotion there. I think what it was is that I, as an actor, would have an emotional response, because I was an observer, as a Chronicom, I would always turn that into curiosity and being intrigued.”
The panel is available below, but all Comic-Con@Home panels can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/ComicCon/featured
