Development Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was renewed for a fourth season on March 3, 2016, earlier than usual for the series. Executive producer
Jed Whedon said on this, "We're thrilled to know going into the end of
season three] with certainty that we will be returning, because we can build our story accordingly." Executive producer
Maurissa Tancharoen also noted that logistics for hiring directors for the season in advance would be easier, "which is a very nice privilege to have...that's a luxury". The end of the episode "
What If..." features an onscreen tribute to
Bill Paxton, who died in February 2017 and had portrayed
John Garrett in the series'
first season. The series paid additional tribute to Paxton in "
All the Madame's Men" with promos during
The Bakshi Report news segment showcasing John Garrett as a fallen American hero. The end of "
World's End" features a similar onscreen tribute to
Powers Boothe, who died in May 2017 and had portrayed
Gideon Malick in the series' third season.
Writing The season shifted to the later 10 pm timeslot, allowing it to take on a darker, more mature tone than previous seasons. According to Tancharoen, "The whole tagline for this year is
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. After Dark". The timeslot gave the series the opportunity to present an increased level of violence and partial nudity, as well as take more risks and present edgier themes. Following the third-season finale, Tancharoen stated that the fourth season would explore the guilt
Daisy Johnson has over
Lincoln Campbell's death. Executive producer
Jeffrey Bell noted the writers tried to continue the tradition of "finding new combinations and new conflicts" between different sets of characters, given "a lot of procedurals [see] the same people doing the same thing for five years". Pairings that would be explored included Coulson and Mack, continuing from the end of season three, who have a mutual respect for one another due to their relationships with Daisy, and
Leo Fitz and
Holden Radcliffe, who work together. The Fitz-Simmons relationship was also explored more, examining the new challenges it presented for the two "working together, loving each other and living together". Following the third season's dealing with the themes of
Captain America: Civil War (2016), such as the opposing reactions to the
Inhumans, Whedon said that the question of "How do you deal with a war with powered people at that level, a government level?" was one that they wanted to answer in the fourth season. Tancharoen called the Inhumans "a permanent part of our universe now", with Whedon adding, "we have a quick-fire way of introducing people with powers. It gives us a lot of leeway in our world, and it lets us explore the metaphors of what it is like to be different. We will never close that chapter." With
the Inhumans film being removed from
Marvel Studios' release schedule, the series had "a little more freedom" and were "able to do a little bit more" with the species, including the potential of introducing some of the "classic" Inhumans, though the series would focus less on Inhumans than the third season which saw "a real significant Inhuman agenda story". It was not intended to be a spin-off of
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. On the evolution of
S.H.I.E.L.D. to featuring so many powered characters, Whedon said "the dynamic in the world has changed. There was one person with powers, and then by
The Avengers there were maybe six total ... now they're much more prevalent, so there's reaction from the public based on that." The season is structured into three "pods" based on its airing schedule: the first eight episodes, subtitled
Ghost Rider;
LMD (
Life Model Decoy) for the subsequent seven episodes; and a third pod for the final seven episodes called
Agents of Hydra. Elements and characters cross over between the different pods, but the sections "definitely have a different feel" from one another, as Bell explained that 22 episodes "is a long time to hold a
big bad or a single plot line, especially for an audience", and for the past two seasons, the series was able to have two separated halves that "allows us to introduce a big bad. And then, something happens and we rise somebody new ... Now, there's three of those." "Financial considerations" were also taken into account in creating the pods for the season, as using LMDs does not "cost as much as setting a guy's head on fire via
CGI". In terms of writing the "complicated season", Whedon said the writers were "aware that our fans are our fans and have spent some time with these characters and are clever and see things coming sometimes ... Part of our job is to create not just what we are presenting on plot, but letting the audience be one step ahead of us and being one step ahead of that." He added that the writers knew that they wanted to tell a Ghost Rider story, an LMD story, and a "
what if" scenario, and the hardest part was making each pod still fit together as a single season. The major connection ultimately became the
Darkhold, which leads from the magic of
Ghost Rider to the advanced science of
LMD and then the Framework in
Agents of Hydra. Ghost Rider also reappears in the final episode of the season, "World's End", as an additional connection.
Ghost Rider While planning the fourth season, Marvel suggested that the series introduce
Ghost Rider, after the character's film rights had returned to Marvel from
Sony in May 2013. Loeb felt that this made the season unquestionably "the series' biggest" with the "most ambitious story yet". He added that "one of the things that we talked about is, S.H.I.E.L.D. always looked out for the weird, the unusual, the things that were and could be a problem for the public", and Marvel realized that Ghost Rider's abilities, which are more mystical than anything seen in the series to date, opened up "a quarter of the universe that we haven't really spent a lot of time exploring ... what happens if our very real, our very grounded agents who are very much a family have to take on something that is as bizarre and powerful and unique as Ghost Rider." Bell added that the producers would have been willing to give an entire season of the show to a Ghost Rider arc if the season was 13 episodes or less, but 22 episodes seemed too long to "feel like one flavor". The Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider was chosen over other versions of the character from the comics because of his relationship with his brother Gabe, which Loeb said harkened back to the familial nature of the series. This also helped the series distance itself from Sony's films
Ghost Rider (2007) and
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) which starred
Nicolas Cage as the
Johnny Blaze version of the character. Bell described the series' take as more grounded than Cage's "larger-than-life version". During the series' take on Reyes' origin story, another Ghost Rider appears. While unnamed onscreen, Luna believed it was meant to be Johnny Blaze and that unspecified legal issues prevented this from being made explicit. This Ghost Rider was portrayed by Tom McComas during filming. Given the disparity between the other science-based aspects of the series and the mystical Ghost Rider in the season, Whedon noted that "some very advanced technology [would be developed] this season, and maybe–as that becomes more advanced and we have strange people... possessed people–those things somehow merge down the line". As part of combining technology and mysticism, the series depicts
Hell as another dimension that can be reached through a portal, and the Ghost Rider's
Spirit of Vengeance as a being from that other dimension. Marvel trusted the producers of
S.H.I.E.L.D. with creating and using Ghost Rider how they wanted to, but did ask them "to be true to what it is" in the comics. They looked to do this by taking the original elements from the comic, but putting their own spin on them. This included Reyes' uncle Eli, who is the spirit possessing Reyes in the comic, appearing as an external villain. Reyes is instead possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance, which is passed to him by another Ghost Rider; in the comics, multiple Ghost Riders exist at once, but for the series this was changed so the power can only be used by one at a time, and they pass it on to the next Ghost Rider.
LMD Since the beginning of the show, the producers had wanted to introduce the concept of LMDs, which
Marvel Television head
Jeph Loeb noted "have always been part of
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history in the comics". However, they were unable to before
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which sees the introductions of
Ultron and
Vision in a similar manner to LMDs. For the fourth season, they particularly pushed the idea, and Whedon noted that the introduction of Ghost Rider and mysticism allowed the series to introduce new technology that could launch LMDs in a way deemed rewarding, so the Ghost Rider storyline "dovetails" into the LMD storyline. The S.H.I.E.L.D. program is introduced through the character
Aida, an android. Additionally, with LMDs chosen as one of the pods for the season, Whedon said the writers questioned, "what are all the things we could do? You don't want to do the ones that have been done [in similar tropes], and you don't want to leave any on the table." One idea that "we knew we wanted to have early on" was to reveal that the majority of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been replaced at once. Tancharoen hinted that the series would continue
Age of Ultrons theme of "diving into the world of A.I. [and] things may not go as planned". On what makes Aida different from the villain Ultron, Whedon explained that "Aida started as something that was supposed to mimic human behavior. Ultron came out almost a fully fleshed-out creature with his own agenda, where she's been discovering hers along the way." He added that instead of thousands of robots, the LMDs would be presented as android versions of the other characters in the series. Whedon said of themes that are raised in the second pod, "there are issues of reality and identity. Trust is always an issue in a spy organization. It's much worse when you don't know if the person next to you is the person next to you ... When you get into trust, that's when things get emotional." The pod ends with the
Melinda May LMD seemingly destroying herself and all the other known LMDs besides Aida, concluding her specific arc which explored the nature of humanity and identity. Asked if any of these LMDs survived this act, and could carry over to the third pod of the season, Whedon said "We'll see, but the idea was to put that chapter behind us."
Agents of Hydra The third pod of the season "ties together [the season] thematically", taking the characters into the virtual world of the Framework, where their lives are different from the real world. This explores "what if" scenarios for many of the characters by showing who they may have been if a major regret of their life was changed, hence the pod's title,
Agents of Hydra. This continues the season's focus on the nature of identity and reality, having "payoff[s] to all the reflection[s] on the past" such as Mack's tragic loss of his daughter and Fitz's troubled relationship with his father. Bennet called the pod "very relevant. It's definitely a theme that I think has been kind of hopping around in pop culture at the moment. But it's kind of like a fun Marvel take on that. For all those people who wished to see these characters in a different light, this is going to be the time for that to happen." Whedon felt that this storyline would not be interesting early in a series, but is rewarding after spending "80-plus episodes with these characters". Whedon said they replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with Hydra in the Framework to show "that this world was not what was intended, and what really symbolizes the opposite of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the ultimate evil in our world is Hydra. It's more about our people than it is about the organization itself this time around." It was noted that "the bad guy [Hydra] is in charge and Inhumans are being hunted" could be taken as a commentary on the political climate under the
Presidency of Donald Trump. On approaching this subject, Tancharoen said that there was no nervousness in the writer's room, and Whedon said that the similarities to Trump's America was simply an attempt to "paint the reality where, what if the world just turned upside down?" The pod sees Hydra based out of the Triskelion, a S.H.I.E.L.D. building that was destroyed by Hydra previously in the MCU. It also features the return of the character
Grant Ward to the series, with Whedon explaining, "We figured when you get dropped into an alternate reality, what better way to show that it might not be everything you imagined than the return of one of our most loved and most hated characters." Whedon noted that the pod does not entirely take place in the Framework, and that the characters "have their full memories of what happened" once they return to the real world. Some, such as Fitz, struggle with their actions in the Framework. The producers felt the impact of the "what if" scenario comes from rooting the changes in character choices, with Bell saying, "I will give the writers room credit that everything that was chosen had an emotional resonance. It was something you hadn't seen, or wanted to see or wondered about, so for us it was really rich territory to mine." Whedon added, "It wasn't just, 'OK, let's go Wacky World!' It was, 'What if you'd made different decisions?' That made it for us a much more fun puzzle." Regarding the season finale and setting up the
next season, Bell said that "Each year we've tried to reinvent the series in some way ... I think the end [of the finale] really does suggest something quite different."
Casting Main cast members
Clark Gregg,
Ming-Na Wen,
Chloe Bennet,
Iain De Caestecker,
Elizabeth Henstridge and
Henry Simmons return from previous seasons as
Phil Coulson,
Melinda May,
Daisy Johnson / Quake,
Leo Fitz,
Jemma Simmons, and
Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, respectively. They are joined by
John Hannah as
Holden Radcliffe, promoted from his third season recurring role. Within the Framework reality, Daisy is referred to by her original name, Skye, while Fitz is also known as "The Doctor". Also returning from earlier in the series are
Natalia Cordova-Buckley as
Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez,
Axle Whitehead as
J. T. James / Hellfire,
Adrian Pasdar as
Glenn Talbot,
Ava Acres as
Katya Belyakov,
Patton Oswalt as
Billy,
Sam and
Thurston Koenig, and
Briana Venskus,
Maximilian Osinski, and Alexander Wraith as Agents
Piper,
Davis, and
Anderson, respectively.
Agents of Hydra also sees the return of former series regular
Brett Dalton as
Grant Ward, along with the return of
B. J. Britt as
Antoine Triplett, Adam Kulbersh as
Kenneth Turgeon, and
Simon Kassianides as
Sunil Bakshi. Advertisements for the show ahead of the 2016
San Diego Comic-Con featuring a flaming chain led to speculation that the character Ghost Rider would be joining the series during the season, though it was noted that the image could just indicate an increased role for Whitehead after he was introduced as James in the third season, and also wields a flaming chain. When casting for two Latino brothers, "one of whom is always the most dangerous person in the room, the other paralyzed in a wheelchair", was revealed to be underway for the series in June, further speculation pointed to the inclusion of Ghost Rider, with those character descriptions resembling those for
Marvel Comics' All-New Ghost Rider
Robbie Reyes and his brother
Gabe, respectively. At the series' Comic-Con panel, the speculation was confirmed—
Gabriel Luna was announced to be cast as Robbie Reyes, and
Lorenzo James Henrie was later revealed to be cast as Gabe. Also in June, the series was looking to cast an actress for the recurring role of
Aida, a robot whose artificial intelligence was briefly voiced by Amanda Rea during the third-season finale;
Mallory Jansen was cast in the role that August. Jansen also portrays
Agnes Kitsworth, Radcliffe's former lover and partner after whom he modeled Aida. Within the Framework reality, Aida appears as "Ophelia" / Madame Hydra, portrayed as well by Jansen. Other recurring guests revealed were Lilli Birdsell as
Lucy Bauer, a worker at Momentum Energy;
Jason O'Mara as
Jeffrey Mace / Patriot, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.;
Parminder Nagra as
Ellen Nadeer, an anti-Inhuman politician; and
Patrick Cavanaugh as S.H.I.E.L.D.
PR agent
Burrows. In October 2016,
José Zúñiga was revealed to be portraying
Eli Morrow, the Reyes' uncle, while in January 2017,
Zach McGowan was revealed as
Anton Ivanov, "The Superior" of the Watchdogs. In April 2017, Jordan Rivera was revealed as
Hope Mackenzie, Mack's daughter in the Framework reality. Additionally, Blaise Miller and Ricardo Walker make multiple appearances as S.H.I.E.L.D. lab tech
Nathanson and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent
Prince. In May 2016, Tancharoen said "we're always open" to the possibility of
Adrianne Palicki and
Nick Blood appearing in the season, after they left the series' cast during the third season for the spin-off series ''
Marvel's Most Wanted'', which ultimately did not get picked up. Whedon reiterated in January 2017 that "Once an agent, always an agent, so it's always out there in the ether", but stated that the pair were unlikely to return during the fourth season.
Design Each pod of the season introduces new title graphics for the series: a "hellfire"-based title card for
Ghost Rider; a graphic constructed from robot circuitry for
LMD; and a more traditional
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. logo for the third pod that changes onscreen to
Agents of Hydra for episodes primarily set in the Framework, but remains
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. during "The Return". The
Ghost Rider title card was used again for the season finale. For the Framework setting, the production team chose a specific, more "washed" out palette to clearly differentiate those scenes from the real world. This was realized through a combination of production and costume design, and cinematography. Ghost Rider was designed by Marvel Television creative director Joshua Shaw, based on
Felipe Smith's design from the comics. His jacket was then custom made by costume designer Ann Foley and her team. The character's skull design includes exhaust-type jets of flames coming from the temples to mimic the effects on his car. Foley worked with the visual effects department to ensure that the costume would not interfere with their work. Aida's costume was also custom made, and inspired by the works of
Alexander McQueen. The costume evolves through the season, becoming a darker shade of gray when the more ruthless "Aida 2.0" is introduced. Foley left the show after the thirteenth episode of the season, to work on a
television adaptation of
Altered Carbon, and was replaced with Amanda Riley. Riley used her previous experience recreating costumes to "blend in" with Foley's established look, and also noted that the majority of her work was designing for the Framework reality which allowed her to not exactly match with previous designs. Riley took Foley's costumes for Aida as the base shape of the Madame Hydra costume, but looked to make it feel "stronger" and more military-esque than those costumes by having the shoulders of the costume evoke
epaulettes. The costume uses the color green, which is closely tied with the character in the comics. For the
Darkhold, writer
Lilla Zuckerman suggested that the book's cover should feature the word "Darkhold" as an
ambigram, with the series' props department designing a new font to achieve this. Prop master Scott Bauer was inspired by elements from the
Kree weaponry designed for the previous season when designing the cover of the
Darkhold. Multiple versions of the book were created for the show, with the frames created by 3D-printing molds to create durable rubber casts. These were then given to a bookbinder with aged,
vellum pages, who assembled the props and created the leather cover. The pages were filled with text and illustrations inspired by
Leonardo da Vinci's
Vitruvian Man.
Filming Production on the season began on July 21, 2016, in
Los Angeles. Whedon made his directorial debut with "Self Control". Whedon noted he had decided at the end of season three to direct an episode in season four after doing some
second unit work on "Spacetime" under
Kevin Tancharoen. He credited his brother and series creator
Joss Whedon along with Tancharoen, and his "years working with
S.H.I.E.L.D.s directors from a showrunning perspective and his close relationship with the cast and crew" for why now was the right time for him to direct an episode. The cast expressed enthusiasm with Whedon directing "Self Control", given he also wrote the episode, with Bennet feeling, "The vision is so clear. There's a lot more room to play, like 'what about this?' and the enthusiasm because he wrote these words, he knows what's coming next. It's been so much fun." Ahead of filming the final episode of the season, Wen injured her leg in an on set accident with "a fairly severe injury". Wen noted the production was able to work around her injury with no delay and that she would still be involved with the episode. Production on the season concluded on April 17, 2017.
Music The season saw "several major creative turning points" in the score from composer
Bear McCreary. Given the introduction of Ghost Rider and the Framework in the season, McCreary used "searing
synths" over the regular symphonic orchestra.
Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins In March 2016, Tancharoen stated that there was a possibility the season could continue the story of
Agent Carter (2015–2016) in some way, given it was not renewed for the
2016–17 season. Whedon added that "We are linked to them through history [but] whether or not we'll tell their stories remains to be seen." The Momentum Energy Labs group introduced in the season is eventually revealed to be a successor to the Isodyne Energy company from the
second season of
Agent Carter. The two companies are connected by the parent company
Roxxon, a mainstay of the MCU, and deal with supernatural entities: Isodyne discovered the extra-dimensional
Darkforce, while Momentum is shown experimenting on extra-dimensional energy using the
Darkhold, the
Book of Sins from the comics. In December, Whedon said that
Peggy Carter "is a part of the universe, and she's a character we care about", and that there was a good chance of having bigger connections to her show moving forward after the
Ghost Rider pod. The season's exploring of supernatural and mystical concepts ties-in with the release of
Doctor Strange (2016), the first MCU film to explore magic. In addition to the
Darkhold, this includes the introduction of Ghost Rider, with Whedon explaining in July 2016, that "the Marvel Cinematic Universe|Marvel [Cinematic] Universe is moving into new waters [with the upcoming release of
Doctor Strange]. We felt that [Ghost Rider] was obviously a great character that we'd love to have on our show that we feel fits with that shift." Whedon pointed out that the previous tie-ins were sometimes "very direct", and other times "more thematic. The tie this year will feel more of a reflection of [
Doctor Strange], less an interweaving plot." He added, "Hopefully some of the questions that we're asking will be answered by [the film, which can] then pose some new themes and ideas for us to explore." "Deals with Our Devils", aired after the release of
Doctor Strange, sees Aida create a portal to rescue Coulson and Fitz from another dimension. The visuals for these are intentionally reminiscent of those used in the film. Bell added that the
Darkhold "feels like it belongs in the library in Kathmandu", referring to the
Kamar-Taj library seen in
Doctor Strange. On the season having a big crossover in early 2017 like previous seasons, Bell said that any crossover will not be as large scale as the first season crossover with
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), which changed the premise of the series, and noted that the MCU film being released at that time is
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), which would be difficult to tie-in with as it is not set on Earth, and takes place earlier in the MCU continuity than the season is set. ==Marketing==