Will 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Surprise Us With A Big Cameo?

Marvel crossover fever is in the air! We’ve had our big blockbuster fun with the many Avengers: Age of Ultron easter eggs on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tuned in to see how it would all tie together. We finally found out what all the fuss was over Theta Protocol — turns out a helicarrier is kind of a big deal when you are trying to save the world. All of this franchise synergy coming together reminds me of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s big season finale last year when, just as things were looking grim for our darling FitzSimmons, Nick Fury showed up on the scene and proceeded to kick HYDRA butt and pass over control to Agent Coulson. The stakes are no less dire these days as now-Director Coulson is on the precipice of an all-out war with the Inhumans. However, as wonderful an assist as it would be, I'm not expecting Fury (or any Avengers) to appear in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D . finale.

Amazing cameo opportunity? You better believe it. Rabid fanbase that would gobble up seeing Hawkeye and Bobbi Morse share some screen time? I’d pay to see that. Show that’s been trying to differentiate itself from its feature-film predecessor all season? Yeah, it’s got that going for it as well. I think that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working hard (and succeeding) to position itself as a standalone series, and another big name Avengers tie-in would undermine that. The cameo I find much more plausible (and equally as exciting) is one from none other than Agent Peggy Carter.

Now that Agent Carter is renewed for Season 2, I think it’s very likely that we'll be seeing more appearances from Hayley Atwell, or possibly even the Howling Commandos, as the show goes on, and the Season 2 finale would be a headline-grabbing place to start. There could be any number of reasons for S.H.I.E.L.D. to flashback a few decades, like to see the beginning of the hunt for the missing Obelisks that have been floating around. Those things are crazy powerful and it seems like HYDRA smuggled them away a long time ago. If their whereabouts are discovered, we might just see Jiaying send everyone in Afterlife through the transformation. After all, the more Inhumans in her army, the better their chance at victory.

We could also have a flashback to any encounters that the Commandos had with Inhumans, and how they managed to go unnoticed by S.H.I.E.L.D./S.S.R. for so long. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could even introduce a new big bad or future Carter plot right in the middle of its own mayhem. Either way, I am crossing my fingers for another crossover. It’s fun to see the two shows interact, and feels really organic in ways that are harder to do with movie tie-ins. In an ideal world, we’d have Agent Carter time travel to present day S.H.I.E.L.D. to talk fight skills with May — but I don’t think we’ll get that lucky.

Images: Walt Disney Studios; argentskye/Tumblr