What’s old is eventually and inevitably new again, and if the relentless turning of the rumor mill is to be believed, that’s about to become especially true for the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the coming years.
When Kevin Feige was promoted to the company’s Chief Creative Officer, one of his first acts was to fold Marvel Television and disregard any previous TV shows as official MCU canon, which created a minor headache given the sheer amount of references made to the events of the movies in the likes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, not to mention James D’Arcy’s Edwin Jarvis showing up in Avengers: Endgame after Feige had made his decree.
However, that hasn’t stopped Marvel TV alumni like Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Krysten Ritter, Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet from being linked to a return as the same characters they previously played on the small screen, albeit with the caveat that they’ll be introduced to audiences for the first time as their official MCU versions.
The latest rumor offers that several familiar faces from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be brought back into the mythology via a franchise-wide soft reboot that would have them return without referencing any of their previous escapades, so as to start with a narratively clean slate. Obviously, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard something similar and it certainly won’t be the last, either, but with the MCU in need of more content and cast members than ever before due to the Disney Plus expansion, there are definitely worse ideas out there than dipping into its own back catalogue for inspiration to give it a fresh lick of paint, and there are plenty of fans that’d love to see Phil Coulson and Quake make their return.