Dragon Con 2017

Part 13: Agents of SHIELD

By Wolfen Moondaughter
August 13, 2018

Part One: Overview and Wednesday
Part Two: Thursday
Part Three: Wallace Shawn
Part Four: Toby Froud
Part Five: The Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast, Part One
Part Six: The Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast, Part Two
Part Seven: Buy My Book
Part Eight: Medieval Swag, Part 1
Part Nine: Medieval Swag, Part 2
Part Ten: Friday Night, Including Steam Powered Giraffe, and Saturday Morning
Part Eleven: Matt Smith, Part One
Part Twelve: Matt Smith, Part Two

Saturday, September 2nd

With the 4 p.m. Agents of SHIELD panel being in the same ballroom as Matt Smith's 1 p.m. panel had been in, I got in line for the AoS panel immediately. This meant skipping my other 2:30 panel choices:

-Being John Cusack: The Classic American Movie Q&A

-Meet the Stars of Star Wars

-Writing Doctor Strange

And in choosing to attend the AoS panel, I forewent the rest of the 4 p.m. panels I had narrowed my list down to:

-A Disney Fanatic's Social

-An Hour with Rob Paulsen (At least I'd seen him before.)

-Remembering Carrie Fisher & Kenny Baker

-Stargate: Operation Indeed

-The Stop Motion of LAIKA

As I left the Matt Smith panel and was walking through the crowd on the Atrium level, a prop someone was carrying low to the ground hit me solidly in the knee -- I saw stars, and not in a good way! I ended up with a bruise and a bit of a limp for the rest of the weekend. Please be careful when carrying things through crowds!

When I went outside to get in line, the line for the 2:30 panel was still there (and, inexplicably, was still going in when that panel was nearly scheduled to be over). They didn't have a separate line going yet for AoS when I arrived, so we just kind of milled around, repeatedly told that we couldn't line up, but frankly, every time I've left when told to and come back later, I've found a huge line when I returned, so ... the con needs to figure out some other way to handle this. (At this point, I'm thinking maybe taking numbers, like at the deli?) As I waited, I chatted with a couple; the guy, hilariously, was wearing name tags with the various titles Danny Rad gives himself in the Iron Fist Netflix series. Soon after, my friends Carey and Shannon showed up, and we all chatted together, managing to stay together when they finally let us line up. Shannon told me about the political workings in The Handmaid's Tale, so even though I wasn't in a panel yet, I learned some things!

Inside, I found an aisle seat about a third of the way from the front, about as good as I could get for picture ... and then for ten minutes or so during the panel, some guy set himself up in the aisle itself with his camera, directly in my view. I tried asking him to move after a few minutes -- my understanding was that it's all right to do that for a few shots, but not to camp out in the aisle (but perhaps I'm wrong). He either ignore me or didn't hear me, but thankfully he didn't stay there the whole time.

The panel consisted of Mallory Janson (Aida / Agnes / Ophelia / Madame Hydra), Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma Simmons), Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May), and Brett Dalton (Grant Ward / HIVE). Henstridge had a paper cut-out of Ian De Caestecker (Fitz)'s head on a stick.

There were a lot of people talking over each other and a lot of fluctuating volume levels on my recording of this panel, so bear with me -- I'll suss things out as best I can.

I noted that the questioners got seats to sit in for this panel -- wish they did that for all of them! My poor knees and hips were I agony when I tried going up for the Star Trek panel!

When she came up on stage, Wen added a pic of the room to Instagram, but when Dalton's turn came, it turned out that he was still trying to figure the social media platform out.

The first question was as to whether or not Inhumans was going to tie into Agents of SHIELD. One of the panelists (I can't tell from the recording which) pointed out that AoS would be in the same time slot (as in, AoS would take over the spot after Inhumans finished, so they couldn't do an arc spanning both shows at the same time). There was a joke about all of us needing to sign a non-disclosure agreement, with Henstridge ultimately telling us that they couldn't answer. There was also a moment of amused pity for Dalton when he remarked that they don't send him scripts anymore (what with his character being dead). The moderator conjectured that there might be a tie-in, considering that, last we saw Coulson, he was on a spaceship; Dalton quipped to be careful when Coulson is on another planet (as Coulson killed Ward on one). Wen pointed out that Jemma did okay under those circumstances, and Dalton made a joke about Jemma spending "525,600 minutes" (a reference to a song from Rent) on that planet. I'd heard that Dalton is quite funny, and it seems I'd heard correctly!

The question wrangler had a sense of humour too; she first asked Henstridge to stand up and show us her "Strong Female Character" shirt, then asked Dalton to stand up to show us what a double-agent (such as Ward) looks like.

The next questioner declared that the "Framework" arc of the series was her favourite, asking what aspect of it they each liked best. "That I'm alive?" Dalton replied (he'd been killed off twice before that). The panelists agreed that that was nice; Dalton quipped that he was "waiting for this to turn". "I mean, it didn't last, but it was nice!" Henstridge needled him. Henstridge then told a story of a night shoot in a park during that arc, where there were people were doing "a haunted ghost night thing", walking by dressed in some sort of nightgowns, screaming. The panel asked Janson what her favourite aspect of the arc was, considering she was such a big part of it, Henstridge remarking that Janson had the best outfits for it, while Wen added Janson also had the best hair and eye makeup, saying they were jealous. Janson replied that she found the outfit very empowering, and that getting to play a Marvel supervillain was so cool. She enjoyed doing research on Madame Hydra, reading old comics (but not the early call times for getting into makeup), and coming onto Fitz.

Henstridge declared that he was sexy, asking us, "Didn't he look good in the Framework?" Dalton quipped that he had been seeing it all along, and was glad people could finally see what he did. (I'm assuming that was a shout-out of sorts to those who ship FitzWard.) Wen replied that she didn't see it. "Awww, look at him!" Simmons cooed over the Fitz head, wearing Wen down to agreement. The moderator pointed out that May only had eyes for Coulson, and Henstridge asked if May and Coulson get together. "They 'get it' together," Wen teased in a raunchy tone. (There was a bit more back and forth on the subject of May and Coulson, but I can't make it out.)

I had trouble making out the next question and reply, too. Near as I can tell, someone asked if their past relationship influenced their rage in the confrontation between their characters. Wen said it was the rage of a woman scorned, but also about him being the mole; Dalton kept interrupting her with suggestions. On his turn, he said Ward's rage mostly came from a terrible childhood; he'd done a good job of hiding it, but that moment brought it out. He said, "Hurt people hurt people," and that Ward had been dealt a really bad deck of cards. Henstridge jokingly told him she wasn't going to feel sorry for him, saying, "Do you know how many people you've killed??", but added that he did look good doing it.

The next question was whether SHIELD was destroyed or not; there was some confusion as to whether the questioner meant the organisation or the series. Wen confirmed that there was a 5th season to go for the series (remember, this panel happened last September), adding that SHIELD had actually been destroyed a few times now, starting with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but they couldn't answer as to whether it still exists without giving spoilers. Wen went on to say that, with a show like theirs, she felt spoilers really ruin the surprise. She enjoys watching things without knowing anything going in, not even seeing trailers.

The next fan remarked that Simmons has changed a lot over the seasons, asking how Henstridge herself has changed over that time. Henstridge revealed that, for a while, whenever she got to the set, she was afraid that she'd learn she'd been fired; now, she's more confident. She also said that the special relationships she's made with the people she's worked with are what have changed her the most, when one considers that a minute of television generally equals 3 hours of work, so they all spend a lot of time together. Wen added that Henstridge remains the most angelic being on Earth.

The next fan asked Dalton, if he had the chance to come back on the show, what would he want to come back as? "Alive." Dalton added that they could do whatever they want with him; that he had even tried back on his HYDRA uniform, so that's always an option; and that they have his phone number. He also said what he would tell them if they asked him back, but I couldn't make it out. Henstridge asked him if he would want to be good or bad, and he replied that he didn't want to be Hive again so much, but he thought the Ward of the Framework was really cool, a hero but still badass.

Now, besides asking her question, the fan also brought a piece of fan art for the panel to look at while she asked her question and Brett answered. This is a bit better than making one's question specifically a matter of showing the artwork, and I can appreciate the desire to show it off in front of everyone, but as I've said before, that sort of personal thing really should be saved for interactions in the Walk of Fame. Inevitably, the panel moved on from the question to the art -- thus turning the focus from the panelists, whom everyone waited in line to learn more about, to one audience member that fewer people knew. (And besides, you can�t trust a reaction with an audience to be genuine.) But I do appreciate that the artist asked a panelist something about said panelist.

The moderator remarked on how actors might wait in hopes of being given a chance to play a different version of themselves (as many of them have done), and get to explore things, then asked what kind of character would be out of their wheelhouse.

Janson supposed an Irish character, not having the accent down, and went on to talk about how fun it was for her to play so many different characters. Apparently Aida was originally only supposed to be in four episodes; she wondered what was going on when her four were up and her character still wasn't dead. She complimented the writers, calling them amazing, and Henstridge said Janson was amazing too. (The way they were all so enthusiastically supportive of one another throughout the panel was very sweet!) Wen weighed in, saying that often they would get concepts like this thrown at them about two days before having to perform it, and have to process what they want quickly. Janson added that there's a lot of secrecy on the set. People had hinted for a while that something big was coming for her, but she wasn't actually told anything until about a week before, and then had to rush to do all that research with the old comics. She gets why a show like that has so many secrets.

A fan noted that most of the cast seem to be dog people, but Dalton seems a cat guy; they asked what it was like for him, having all the dogs running around the makeup trailer and such. Dalton replied that he was fine, he's an animal lover, but he couldn't really bring his pet to work. There was a chorus of "aww"s, to which Dalton asked how it was that he could get more sympathy for not being able to bring a pet to work than for dying on a planet. Henstridge asked why he couldn't bring his cat, to which he replied, "I could, I dunno -- we just got our fourth, actually." And then someone called him "the cat guy" (I assume as in reference to a "crazy cat lady").

A fan mentioned having seen the two-episode Inhumans pilot at the theatre, and confirmed that there was a reference to Agents of SHIELD in it. Wen eagerly asked if they could tell us anything (never mind her words about spoilers, which I think Dalton called her on but I couldn�t make it out for sure). The fan didn't spoil us, instead going on to say that, despite having a scene on Earth, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the first Marvel movie that AoS hadn�t made are reference to in the following week, so he was wondering if that was meant as a snub to the films for not ever referencing AoS in them. (Wait, was there an Ant-Man mention I'm not remembering? And does he mean excluding the first GotG?) Wen replied that it was more a matter of being too hard to work out tying the stories together scheduling-wise, especially if release dates got shifted. Henstridge added that it was really cool to do it first season, with Winter Soldier, but being in their fifth season, they have too many of their own story components to deal with now, so we might understand why there might be less tie-ins now. Wen then jumped in with, "Or, there might be more tie-ins!"

The next fan was a kid; the mic-wrangler revealed that one of the other tracks had a training obstacle course, which the girl had passed to become an "Agent of SHIELD". The kid asked them who their favourite person in SHIELD was. Janson said she loves everyone, but picked May, because she's so kick-ass. Henstridge likewise chose May, complimenting Wen on all the fighting, and calling her a machine. My notes say that Dalton chose Fitz, but I can't make it out in the recording.

Wen remarked that May is antithesis of her, allowing her to be a badass, coordinated and smart. She couldn�t choose a fave, attributing that inability to the mom in her, saying it's like picking your favourite child. She also complimented the writers, saying she doesn't know how they bring such amazing characters out of a blank page on a weekly basis. She pointed out that, as much as she loves Game of Thrones, they only have to do something like eight episodes and sometimes take more than a year, whereas AoS does 22 in nine months, with 8 only days per episode. She really doesn't know how the writers do it.

Through the next fan, we learned that Wen attended Carnegie-Melon. She said that, when her mother found out she could get a degree in drama, her mom remarked that American schools are so easy! Dalton, the smartass, asked Wen how she got to Carnegie Hall.

A fan asked which other Marvel property, including the Netflix shows, did they feel their character would be most useful outside of their own show. Wen joked that she was too tired to answer. I couldn't make out everything Henstridge said, but I think she was saying she'd probably do well in all of them. I know she did say something about how Madame Hydra would probably stand out in a real-world environment like is typical of the Netflix shows. The moderator said he'd like to see Jessica Jones smart off to May; Wen replied, "Yeah ... I'd win." She added that she thinks May would be interesting as one of the housewives (of The Real Housewives franchise). She also posed, "Could you imagine our characters on a Survivor game?"

The next fan thanked them for coming; Dalton, in turn, thanked the 2000 of us who came to share our afternoon with them. Otherwise, he joked, they'd be talking to an empty room, saying they'd done it before. "Maybe you've done it before," Wen teased. The fan then said May was up there with Ripley from Aliens, which earned him a hug.

And finally, his question was how she prepared for the changes in her role, particularly in light of the Framework arc. Wen replied that, in the early days of May, when the character was so stoic and hid everything, she would try to find the humour in that. It was challenging at first, but got really fun with her flat, straight one-liners. She didn't believe that at first, but Jeffrey Bell told her to trust it, just do it, be really flat and just throw it away. Now, she said, she gets it, adding, "That was a really good learning process for me." But then they made May an LMD, with even less emotion, then put her in the Framework with less still, and she wondered where they wanted to take it to. Her thought process was that the real May was about having compassion, and loving and protecting her family, without being able to show it, whereas HYDRA-May was all about revenge and hate and wanting to destroy. And she had to do it all with without smiling or talking, so she really appreciates when others tell her they love May. And she really appreciates the comparison to Ripley, because she was one of the few strong female characters Wen looked up to. She joked that it makes her torn ACL really worth it!

Someone asked Janson and Dalton how they prepared for playing inhuman (not Inhuman) characters like Aida and Hive. Janson supposed she tried to be as robotic as she possibly could. Henstridge insisted to Janson that she was amazing, but Janson said something about being a mime, and said she has to be "so precise". Wen, in all seriousness, attributed Janson's performance to her not blinking, calling that amazing. Janson revealed that she got such dry eye, she had to see an optometrist, and that she even had a director ask her, after a take, to try to blink less and try not to breathe.

Wen suggested that the worst part of being in the Framework was being naked. She and the other women clarified that they're never really naked, at which point Dalton interjected, "Speak for yourselves!" Janson went on to say that they did still film it on a closed set. (There was some further talk about that, but I can't really make it out.)

A fan asked for Wen's thoughts on the status of May and Skye(Daisy)'s relationship at the end of the Framework arc. Wen revealed that she had, during the first season, been convinced that Skye was May and Coulson's love child (while I enjoyed Skye's parentage arc, I like this idea!), joking that they need to do a "23 and Me" on her to be sure that the revealed parentage isn't wrong. She feels that, as May has been training Skye, May has struggled between being maternal and being a tough mom who doesn�t show her love and support through words, but through her actions. And then "she" (Wen doesn't specify is she means May or Skye) went off and isolated herself, like a teenager. (It sounds like this frustrated Wen.) Wen feels that, by the end, their family has come back together, though.

When asked what the best part of filming the show is, Dalton replied, "The free water." Henstridge replied that it was having as much food as you could eat, and the variety. She also marveled at the idea of going to work every day at a job she loves, and getting close with the crew, watching their kids grow up. The moderator asked if there were any cool locations they filmed at; someone mentioned how they were on a plane for a while, and Henstridge was enthusiastic about Paris. Dalton replied, "I spent Valentine's day in Paris with Joss Whedon, like you do."

Dalton loved that Ward was a bad-ass, not working a desk job, so he got to do a lot of cool action stuff, like ride a motorcycle, and go off in a helicopter, and tell off Agent Maria Hill. There was a downside, though: due to the speed at which they were filming, the training went quickly -- like they'd get three hours of gun training, and then film a scene with them right away. When he was training for the motorcycle work, it was on small, easy-to-ride dirt-bikes, in a parking lot, and then the day they shot the scene, they unload a big Harley, specially designed for the show, for him to ride -- on cobblestones, in the rain. He was mostly concerned about looking cool, not stupid. But he says it was also a lot of fun, and they get to do a lot of wonderful things that are like a dream. (And he says he's not very coordinated outside of SHIELD.) Wen remarked that they're all geeks themselves, and it�s great to be on the other side, being able to pretend to be these characters and doing these cool things.

The last fan noted that there were a lot of "No way that just happened!!" kinds of moments in the show, and asked what their favourite was. Dalton jokingly asked if he could tell his least favourite instead. Janson said the biggest surprise for her was when Fitz shot Agnes; Henstridge heartily agreed, calling Fitz sneaky and telling Janson it was her (Madame Hydra's) fault. Wen said Coulson getting his arm chopped off shocked her. The moderator remarked that Skye coming out of the Terragen cocoon was a big shock. Henstridge brought up that they lost Tripp in that moment, which made everyone sad, but she reminded us that they got him back in the Framework. (Yeah, but that was only temporary! Sad Wolfie �.)

And that's it for this year's coverage -- sorry! As I write this, Dragon Con 2018 is almost upon us, and I have much to do! And after that, I intend to focus more on my fiction writing, so rather than doing another year-long report, I�ll just be doing a shorter one of the highlights of 2018. I hope you've enjoyed this and previous years of Dragon Con reports!

DragonCon.org — Official site for the con.
Into the Belly of the Dragon Con — Wolfen's Dragon Con-centric blog.