By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
One of the most beloved MCU actors is Clark Gregg, who played Agent Coulson in The Avengers and later reprised the role in the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, the Marvel movies never referenced this show, and the show started ignoring the movies, leading to ongoing debates about whether or not the show is an official part of the MCU canon. Recently, Gregg commented on this at New York Comic Con, saying,“there are some people who talk about canon…You can go f*ck yourself, we’re proud of what we did.”
Some fans in attendance and online were shocked by Gregg’s vulgar response. However, the actor was right to say it because canon is quite literally the stupidest thing anyone can worry about in a superhero franchise. Plus, Gregg is correct in that most who are questioning Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s canon status are mostly using this as an excuse to dunk on one of the most ambitious and popular Marvel series ever made.
Fire the Canon
Why do people question this show’s place in the canon? It started when the movies began ignoring the show: even though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. incorporated elements from the MCU films (including cameos from Samuel L. Jackson and an awesome tie-in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier), the movies never so much as mentioned Coulson or his crew. Later, the canon debate got more intense because Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. never mentioned the infamous Thanos snap from Avengers: Infinity War, potentially implying that this show was taking place in its own little multiverse instead of the MCU proper.
Personally, I don’t think the canon debate is worth having for one simple reason: canon barely matters in the comic book universe that Marvel is adapting for the big screen. Countless famous plot details always get undone by later writers, like when Marvel infamously hit the undo button on Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane or brought fan-favorite character Miles Morales out of the Ultimates universe and into the 616 universe. If the original comic writers don’t worry too much about strict continuity, why should fans care all that much about the internal consistency of the MCU’s tangled lore?
The Dumbest Debate In Nerd History
This, more than anything else, is why I think Clark Gregg was right to curse out fans who question Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s canon status. Canon is an insanely silly thing to worry about: fans who freak out over it would be better off just focusing on whether or not a movie or TV show in this universe is entertaining. While it wasn’t perfect, Gregg’s show was ultimately better than most Marvel series (especially the hit-or-miss Disney+ shows) and deserves to be celebrated rather than torn down.
In short, it’s utterly insane that countless fans spend their days fretting over what did or did not “really” happen in a completely fictional universe. On a long enough timeline, movie and show writers are always going to make changes to existing lore just like the comic writers before them. If you can’t enjoy good shows (like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and movies unless you think their events really happened, well…it might be time to put down the remote control and pick up a history book.
Just watch out, though, for all those pesky changes Rome made to the existing Greek canon!