Ahead of the season six premiere, ABC has already renewed Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD for a 13-episode seventh season. The sixth season is scheduled to return in the summer of 2019. 

Inspired by Marvel characters and concepts, the fifth season of the superhero drama concluded with the apparent death of Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson. While Gregg is not listed among the season seven cast, he did previously escape death at the hands of Loki in The Avengers, so his future remains uncertain. His past however is about to be explored in the upcoming feature Captain Marvel. Set in the ’90s, Gregg will be starring as a younger version of Coulson. 

Season six will open with “Missing Pieces,” written by series co-creators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, and directed by Gregg. This will be Gregg’s second time directing the agents, having directed “Fun & Games” from season five. 

Agents of SHIELD stars Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Agent Alphonso “Mack” MacKenzie, and Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez.