Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) won’t be the only thing that’s different on Agents of SHIELD this season.
When Marvel’s ABC series returns Tuesday with its third season, the series is going to look and feel completely different from its season two finale.
“The show is completely rebooted,” Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The bus blew up so we’ve got a new ship, we’re putting together a team called Secret Warriors made up primarily of Inhumans, more and more Inhumans are emerging after taking fish oil pills, and one of Coulson’s team has vanished into a monolith. It kicks right off with all of that. And SHIELD quickly finds out that they’re not the only ones looking for Inhumans.”
Months after the Terrigen crystal-contaminated fish oil pills hit supermarket shelves, SHIELD will have their hands full with tracking down these new Inhumans who don’t know how to control their powers. Their job will be that much harder thanks to a mysterious new arrival, Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer).
“Rosalind Price is the head of the Alien Threat Containment Unit, and she’s pretty much the female version of Coulson,” Zimmer tells THR. “But you don’t know much about the agency that she works for. She comes in as a very mysterious character and you don’t know if she’s going to do good or bad, if she’s for the Inhumans or against the Inhumans. It’s fun to play that intrigue and mystery.”
Zimmer also noted that once Rosalind and Coulson come face-to-face for the first time, viewers won’t be able to accurately peg what kind of dynamic they share. And that’s because both Zimmer and Gregg still don’t know exactly what their onscreen relationship is yet.
“The relationship between Rosalind and Agent Coulson, people are going to really wonder who’s lying to who, who’s being honest, are we being honest?” says Zimmer. “It’s a cat and mouse game and we’ll see if one catches the other in the end. My money’s on Rosalind.”
As if Coulson didn’t have enough to worry about with the ATCU and his former protoégé Skye becoming Daisy, he’s also coping with having lost his hand.
“Coulson is really going to be struggling with that,” says Gregg. “We start off and he’s got this prosthetic hand Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) made for him and he’s trying to figure out how to use it but it’s not going well. He can’t tie a tie, everything’s off.”
While Coulson will have a hard time adjusting to his new life, Daisy is finally going to feel like she is who she’s supposed to be.
“Now that I’m no longer Skye, I’m really excited to explore her new character,” Bennet tells THR. “It’s not a whole new character but she’ll be changed going forward, and that was her choice. Mack [Henry Simmons] is my new partner and my relationship with Coulson is much more like a co-worker on a team than a father-daughter relationship. And she’s definitely more of a badass and more mature than we’ve ever seen her.”
Simmons adds with a laugh, “And since Mack doesn’t trust anything alien, their partnership is a little rocky but they get things done. They represent both extremes and advise Coulson that way.”
Daisy will have a new purpose in season three: finding and protecting all the new Inhumans that transformed without realizing what was happening.
“Those fish oil pills are going to be the catalyst that kicks off Daisy’s new mission and you’ll see that early on,” says Bennet. “Her first priority is to get the Secret Warriors together and it’s going to be chaos in the beginning when the audience is dropped into the beginning of season three.”
Bennet’s favorite part of the Secret Warriors comics upon which season three is drawing inspiration is the Inhuman villain Lash (Matt Willig), who will first be glimpsed during the action-packed season premiere.
“Lash is coming and I kid you not, he’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” says Bennet with a laugh. “If you’re a fan of the comics, you still will be totally surprised. It’s terrifying.”
One of the biggest mysteries of season three will be figuring out what happened to SHIELD member Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), after the alien monolith swallowed her up in the final moments of season two.
“I do know where she is and we are going to find out what’s happened to her,” Henstridge tells THR. “The answers to that are going to be huge for the season. I can’t say exactly when you’ll find out but you’re not going to have to wait long.”
Henstridge reveals that whatever happened to Simmons in the months since the monolith made her disappear will change her going forward in big ways.
“She’s definitely affected from the whole experience, she’s been alone this whole time and no one will really understand what she went through,” says Henstridge. “And that’s certainly going to affect her relationship with Fitz. He’s been on this mission to find her, a solo mission, and so he’s changed throughout this process as well. There’s still a huge question mark for them.”
It’s especially hard for Fitz, after having just asked Simmons out on an official date before she disappeared.
“He’s been taking her disappearance the hardest of anyone,” De Caestecker tells THR. “He’s been doing anything he can to try and find where she’s gone, and it’s affecting his work on SHIELD.”
Thankfully, Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) has started working in the lab to pick up the slack after her injuries made it impossible for her to go back out into the field.
“She’s definitely reeling from the fact that her strength is such a definition of her character but she suffered some serious injuries and she has to work with a physical therapist now,” Palicki tells THR. “She’s relearning how to use her knee again and she only has one lung. She still has a long way to go and she’s struggling with that. As of now, she’s taking over for Simmons in the lab while she’s gone. It’s hard for her because now, everyone’s going out and kicking ass without her and she’s stuck in the lab.”
But don’t assume that she and Hunter (Nick Blood) have forgotten about who hurt her.
“I don’t know what is going to happen to Ward (Brett Dalton) now that he’s rebuilding Hydra, but I do know he’s on a lot of people’s shit lists,” Blood tells THR with a laugh. “Things are going to get messy.”
Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.
