Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. SHIELD is given a shorter 13 episode season 6

[Random490]

I love this turn of events. I didn't think a season 6 would be possible because the season 5 finale apparently coincides with Infinity War and the next two films take place before IW. We don't know how much time takes place or what will occurred in Avengers 4 so I doubt they had much wiggle room. I don't think moving it to summer was ABC's call, I bet Marvel or the showrunners requested that and as a result ABC wanted fewer episodes. I would guess their reasoning for a shorter season is so that if the want to renew for potential season 7 and 8 they could order another 13 to premiere in Winter 2020 then go back to a fall release later that year.

Still I love the idea of waiting till post Avengers 4, I love having a shorter more focused season, and I love giving the writers time to breath and reassess.

Do shows often shorten seasons when it isn’t their last one?

It's happened plenty of times for a variety of reasons. There's no real rule towards it, just whatever the studio agrees on for whatever reason. Whether it's so a start would be able to do another project without leaving the show, make room for a different show, go on hiatus for some unforeseen circumstance. It's somewhat unusually but it's happened.

Losts last three seasons were shorter than the first ones.

In the case of Lost though that was a compromise between the network and the show because the people making Lost wanted an end date while the network wanted to stretch out the show for as long as possible.

Also season 4 was cut down significantly because of the writer's strike

I'm really happy, if nothing else this will be an opportunity to go out on their terms, they have almost a year to craft the perfect final season.

At least the final season on ABC...

The actors may also want to pursue other projects though, 6+ years of their work life has been already a great gift.

I'd like Whedon and Tancharoen to tackle some other Marvel propriety, on the new Disney streaming service they may be freer also.

Should we make a poll about which spin-off we'd like best as a spiritual successor? GR? Deathlok? Or something completely new?

I don't think Dethlok can really hold his own show. I always thought that Ghost Rider would make a great show, have it star Johnny Blaze, Robbie Reyes, and a third Rider each following their own paths that leads to each other. Think Supernatural.

 

[DalekbusterFitz]

We have 13 episode shows too hense the 13 episode order for this series.

Sometimes though slowburn shows help with character development.

Most of your shows seem to be 22 episodes rather than 13 though, and I think our shows in the UK prove you don't need 22 episodes for character development.

BBC dramas in particular are famous worldwide for their quality, and some are only two episodes long. Channel 4 produce some great dramas too of around six-eight episodes in length (most recently, the incredible Humans produced in collaboration with AMC).

Agents of SHIELD could really benefit from 13 episodes; it should allow for a tight story, and more of a singular focus on certain plot/character elements rather than any tangents. Not to say the show struggles with any of that (I don't think it does), but that they are things a 13 episode series provides.

 

[DalekbusterFitz]

It is becoming increasingly popular on American TV, particularly on serialized were padding occurs as opposed to episodic shows.

In that case I'm glad to hear U.S. dramas are starting to use the perceived wisdom of 'sometimes less is more'. I think 22 episodes is a lot of story to fill when in reality most stories could be condensed down to 13 episodes or less.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

The long seasons are just a legacy of the three networks broadcasting days when you put on a known product for the year. Since now everyone has their own screen American TV is in a transition phase

 

[GBaxter]

If ABC tells its owner Disney, they don't want the show anymore after season 6 because of low ratings,
there's also the option for Disney to take it from them and have a shorter season 7 on its streaming service
to start next year, as it'll need new content and they can put on all the previous seasons on it.

 

[samsnee]

Here’s the thing though. The show returns in the summer after A4. But they will be writing scripts, filming etc, before A4 comes out right? So there’s no guarantee that the shorter season will connect with A4. They could end up being just as disjointed with that movie as this season has been with IW.

 

[KevTravels]

The long seasons are just a legacy of the three networks broadcasting days when you put on a known product for the year. Since now everyone has their own screen American TV is in a transition phase

So true. Literally all cable series are 10-13 episodes now with some being limited series of like 8episodes.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

Here’s the thing though. The show returns in the summer after A4. But they will be writing scripts, filming etc, before A4 comes out right? So there’s no guarantee that the shorter season will connect with A4. They could end up being just as disjointed with that movie as this season has been with IW.

A podcast said that the closed caption TV newscast dialog made a second Battle Of New York bigger than the one in the Avengers, so I can conclude that they didn't get word to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. but the broad outline of story was known.

However to wait until after Avengers 4 which has already been shot does leave the option that they can tell the TV show runners just as they were told for The Winter Soldier

 

[Mike Murdock]

Here’s the thing though. The show returns in the summer after A4. But they will be writing scripts, filming etc, before A4 comes out right? So there’s no guarantee that the shorter season will connect with A4. They could end up being just as disjointed with that movie as this season has been with IW.

I suspect they're just gambling on Avengers 4 resetting Avengers 3's ending so they don't have to address the issue. The only movie likely to overlap is Spider-Man and, given the complexities of the Sony/Marvel thing, it's unlikely they'd be able to do anything for that anyway. Luckily, Spider-Man is not likely to be so huge in scale of a movie for it to be a big deal.

 

[Random490]

I suspect they're just gambling on Avengers 4 resetting Avengers 3's ending so they don't have to address the issue. The only movie likely to overlap is Spider-Man and, given the complexities of the Sony/Marvel thing, it's unlikely they'd be able to do anything for that anyway. Luckily, Spider-Man is not likely to be so huge in scale of a movie for it to be a big deal.

I don't think they're gambling on anything a hiatus this long requires a little more certainty since it's such a huge decision. While Marvel Television and Marvel Studios do not communicate on the fundamental basis of creating a shared story, they still do communicate. Usually it's just to confirm what characters they can or cannot use, but they still get to see early screenings. I bet they made a call to to someone at Marvel Studios to get an idea. I don't think they were given every detail but enough that would be best not to explore the time between Avengers 3 and 4.

The showrunners also stated they only follow the MCU thematically giving little hints to movies where they can. Which is the best course, if they did go far too much into it the story stops being about the agents then looses all meaning. Really, they've been lucky that since Winter Soldier there hasn't be any films that have severely impacted the show in such a huge wave. Really everything since WS only gives them more material to enhance their own narrative. But this is the risk of doing a cross-media shared universe. If Avengers 4 rumors are to be believe then [BLACKOUT]everything that happens since the snap could be undone thus undoing the entire season which would render it pointless.[/BLACKOUT] Which is definitely something that can undercut an entire show and something a writer really wouldn't want to deal with.

Here’s the thing though. The show returns in the summer after A4. But they will be writing scripts, filming etc, before A4 comes out right? So there’s no guarantee that the shorter season will connect with A4. They could end up being just as disjointed with that movie as this season has been with IW.

From what I understand of television production writing won't begin until winter then filming will start probably at the beginning of spring, they may get to see an early cut of the film and be able to adjust anything about a post A4 world.

A podcast said that the closed caption TV newscast dialog made a second Battle Of New York bigger than the one in the Avengers, so I can conclude that they didn't get word to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. but the broad outline of story was known.

However to wait until after Avengers 4 which has already been shot does leave the option that they can tell the TV show runners just as they were told for The Winter Soldier

Who knows if that new cast was ever properly reviewed. Someone probably told a copy writer "write about the new york attack from the trailer but be vague on the details."