Last night was the final episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. For many fans, it was a nice farewell for their seven seasons commitment to the show. Recently, the AV Club caught up to show runners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, along with executive producer Jeffrey Bell and asked them about the grand finale.
Showrunners Speak
One of the questions involved what was their plan and how their budget affected how they proceeded.
MT: We really appreciate you saying that, because as the season progresses, the budget always starts to…
JW: Part of the game is, how to measure it out. We had the amount of chips that we could use, and we had to save some for the end.
MT: We’re glad that you weren’t noticing the return to the dark corridors [in previous episodes].
JW: Oh, he’s noticed. [Laughs.]
Jeffrey Bell: He’s noticed. The way it works is, you know, there’s a pattern budget, we get the same amount for every episode. And so one of the things that we’ve gone to ABC about—and they’ve been good about—is we say, this week we want to have tuna sandwiches for lunch, so that next week we can have, like, a five-course meal. And the problem is, we started in the 1930s and spent all our money. We just got backlot period costumes, which energized everybody and got everyone really excited.
But we have the same amount for every episode. So it’s up to us and our our wonderful line producer, Garry Brown, to really be able to do that. You know, we’re a network show with not a lot of money. And so we’re sad when the corridors are more than we want—you know, we’re as aware of them as you have been from time to time. [All laugh.] And it’s not what we want, it’s just all we can afford to do. We do try and save, so that we can go out with some scope and style.
What wasn’t done
Another question revolved around what they decided NOT to do. One involved a certain large headed A.I.M. Character.
JB: We had a lot of ideas where we were—and I’ll say this, I don’t care—we were given the green light originally to use certain characters from Marvel, and started to break story based on those characters—[Coughs.] MODOK—and then they retracted it. So there were a bunch of things that were going to get a little batshit crazy that were above our pay grade, in terms of the toys we were allowed to play with.
How it ended
When all was said and done, the final product was a great summarization of the characters. And while they were shown going their separate ways, they promised to keep in touch and nothing was done that couldn’t mean a possible future return in some form or fashion.
Did you watch the series final of Marvel’s Agents of Shield? It was grande theater for the fans of the show and for the most part, positively accepted. What did you think? Share your thoughts on the final episodes, here at Geek Vibes Nation.
Source: AVClub
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
