The infiltration and takeover of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Hydra in Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved a major turning point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most of all for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series, whose story had to make a dramatic pivot to compensate for the twist. But contrary to a popular misconception, Marvel Studios planned the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. before it developed the ABC spinoff show, not after.
In the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry cleared up the timeline of the Hydra twist while discussing the rise and fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU. When the creative team behind The Winter Soldier came up with the idea to tear the peacekeeping agency to the ground, Marvel Entertainment and ABC Studios were on the same page. Before planning Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC was aware that the agency was about to turn on its head, and the show’s story was developed around it.
When planning Phase 2 of the MCU, Marvel Studios was “certain” that S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to come down, the new book confirmed. Throughout Phase 1, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s role in the Marvel films gradually grew, culminating in its prominence in uniting the heroes for the Battle of New York in 2012’s The Avengers. Marvel then wanted Phase 2 to be all about disruption, to shake up audience expectations, beginning with the fall of the foundational force of the Avengers.
The disruption kicked off in the Captain America sequel, in which Cap (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) discover that Hydra infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. following their apparent defeat during the events of Captain America: The First Avenger. The plot twist then carried over to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the Season 1 episode “Turn, Turn, Turn,” which aired on ABC only a few days after The Winter Soldier hit theaters in 2014. Whereas most of Season 1 followed Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team of agents on their undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. operations, Episode 17 turned the show’s premise upside-down, cutting the team off from its resources and revealing a handful of key characters to actually be members of Hydra.
While the twist may have seemed abrupt for a show that started by fleshing out the day-to-day operations of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Story of Marvel Studios confirmed the Hydra twist was the plan from the beginning. ABC knew that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s days were numbered, but the show’s story was only beginning. Despite the fall of the greater S.H.I.E.L.D. agency, Agents continued to follow the stories of Coulson and company across seven seasons of television, finally bringing the series to a close in the summer of 2020.
Comprised of over 500 pages across two volumes, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is filled with interviews with the actors, directors and producers responsible for what is now the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. The compendium is packed with trivia about the making of the MCU, such as the story of how Mark Ruffalo became The Hulk or the fact that Marvel replaced Captain America’s shield just before filming.
Source: The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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