‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Season 5 Will Premiere Sooner Than 2018

It was admittedly nerve-wracking to be an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fan in May, as ABC took their time confirming a Season 5 renewal against The Inhumans. We were lucky to get the full twenty-two episodes, and ready to wait until midseason, but ABC now claims we’ll get uninterrupted Agents only a few weeks later than usual.

Where previously Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s absence from the fall schedule suggested Season 5 could wait until early next year (VFX producers also implied as much), ABC boss Channing Dungey confirmed from Sunday’s TCA press tour that “It’s going to come on right after Inhumans. As soon as the eight episodes of Inhumans is done, then S.H.I.E.L.D. will begin.”

The slight schedule crunch will also have the effect of Season 5 airing most of its 22-episode order in sequence, rather than broken up into sections as we saw with Season 4’s “pod” approach. The series will also move from its Tuesday perch to Friday, but Dungey remains confident in its viability, noting that ratings “go up in almost triple digits over seven days.” Not only that, but ABC considers it a “high-class problem” if both series do well, and they end up with a choice between the pair.

In the meantime, we don’t yet know very much about the fifth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – other than its likely galactic focus – though we can at least expect new details as production resumes. Inhumans will premiere on September 29, so expect an official S.H.I.E.L.D. return date around or before then.