Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Clark Gregg Says Coulson is "Messed Up On A Deep Level" 

Marvel\'s Agents of SHIELD: Clark Gregg Says Coulson is \'\'Messed Up on a Deep Level\'\'

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The SHIELD star on the show\'s midseason return and why Coulson is a changed man.

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns Tuesday night on the heels of some big events in last December’s midseason finale. In that episode, Coulson (Clark Gregg) finally decided to put an end to Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) once and for all, killing him and leaving his corpse behind on the alien world he’d traveled to…

…Of course what Coulson doesn’t know, but we do, is Ward’s body then became inhabited by the Inhuman monster known as Hive, returning to Earth to find Gideon Malick an the rest of Hydra.

With SHIELD back, I spoke to Gregg about what murdering Ward has done to Coulson and how that secret is weighing on him, even as the threat of Hive approaches.

IGN: We left off with some dark events involving Coulson. He made a big decision with Ward. How is that decision weighing on him when we pick up the show?

Gregg: He is messed up. He is messed up on a deep level. And I’m so impressed with what the writers have done from the moment that bullet was shot out of Ward’s sniper rifle, and to the beautiful and talented Constance Zimmer / Rosalind Price. It really landed at the heart of Coulson, and he crossed a line he’s never really crossed before, where it did become personal, where there was an element of hatred, I think, that he feels influenced his decision. On the other hand, I think there’s a real case to be made that to leave Ward on that planet, living, wasn’t responsible either. So he’s messed up, he’s got this secret. Fitz knows about it, so he gets to sort of have that on his conscience every time he sees Fitz. And, at the same time what the writers have done so far, teasing going forward, is they’ve made it really complex. At times it seems to really be weighing on him, and at other times it seems like he’s in denial about it and he’s pushing it away. But I really get the feeling that it’s going to come back and blow up on him. And not just literally, with the return of Ward that he doesn’t know about.

IGN: As you mentioned, doesn’t know about the return of Ward and neither does the team, but Fitz was there and saw it. I it kind of their shared dark secret for now?

Gregg: Anything that gives me a chance to have more scenes with Iain de Caestecker makes me happy. But I think it’s unclear. It’s unclear what Fitz’s take is going to be in on it. It’s unclear what Coulson’s take is going to be on it. It’s so big, that line that he crossed. It’s such a big deal to Coulson to have crossed that line that his feelings about it are so complicated. It’s exactly the thing he had to try to figure out when Nick Fury put him in charge, is, “Who am I gonna be as this?” I think Nick Fury wouldn’t have nearly the problems Coulson has had crossing that line. So I think it’s gonna play out slowly. I think it’s going to take a while to tease out the dark stuff that’s in his conscience about it, and for Fitz to go and really talk about it.

Nick Blood and Clark Gregg in Marvel\'s Agents of SHIELD.

IGN: How is he functioning in the meantime as the team leader, because there are still things to deal with on an ongoing basis? Does he still kind of have to, for now, put on the game face and go out there with everyone?

Gregg: There’s not a lot of time to mess around. Gideon Malick is clearly behind Hydra, and he’s a Level 11 dark wizard of Hydra. He’s right up there with Alexander Pierce in terms of power and how effective his cover is. People think it’s preposterous when Coulson tells them what this guy’s been doing. And what we’ve come to learn, through the incredible performance of Powers Boothe, is that this guy is an old school, multi-generational Hydra gangster whose life, and the lives of his father and grandfather, have been dedicated to getting this original inhuman gangster back on our planet. It’s always fun in this particular world, the Marvel world, when the stakes are the survival of humanity. Like, “Okay, good, let’s do that. That’s what we’re here for. Let’s do that.”

IGN: Gideon is a huge threat, and now he has Hive with him, albeit looking like Ward. What can you say about how much that threat will ramp up and perhaps start to make its presence known, now that this guy who looks a lot like someone that they have this horrible history with is walking around with all this power?

Gregg: It’s almost criminal how much fun Grant Ward is going to be having in the back half of this season. When I think about it for a second, it will actually be criminal. He doesn’t know. It’s funny, you know, they say the bad things you do come back to haunt you, and boy does that seem like it’s especially true here. I don’t think they have any clue what they’ve unleashed.

IGN: At the same time, we have this Secret Warriors idea that was growing through the first half of the season. In the mid-season finale we had Daisy with a couple of superpowered companions at her side. Will we continue to see this idea grow? Clearly we saw that it wasn’t just gonna be like the next day you show up and there’s 20 people with superpowers and they’re all trained and ready to go. But will we start to see more of that concept start to take off?

Gregg: You know, it had to be kind of sidetracked dealing with what was going on with Ward and Hydra and Malick, at a certain point. But I’m glad to see that it’s happening now. What I really like about the way our writers are writing it is, it’s not that simple, especially in a world where Civil War lurks on the horizon. Inhumans and bringing them together and helping them to understand what they are and having them be part of a SHIELD that on the one hand nurtures and takes care of them, and on the other hand, detains and neutralizes other humans - it’s a very complicated thing. And Coulson is not giving Daisy a simple task to perform.

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IGN: Now, you mentioned the Civil War. I know you can’t say directly that movie might come into play on the show. But I’m also thinking, whether Civil War is directly seen onscreen or not, Coulson’s history with Cap and Iron Man is pretty profound, even though they don’t even know he’s alive right now. Anything you can say about how that conflict might impact the show or simply might impact Coulson?

Gregg: To be completely honest, I don’t know the answer. Next script we get will be the one that airs right around the release of Civil War. As a comic book fan, I - Clark - know, a lot of people that Coulson really cares about and admires are about to get really nasty with each other. At the same time, as has really demonstrated to be the case, he has no choice but to be really focused on the version of that division that’s happening within his own ranks with his family here on the show, and I’m terrified to see that script. Because, if it’s anything connected to the comics - what happens with the registration of people with powers and SHIELD within that process? It’s going to be very explosive.

Marvel\'s Agents of SHIELD returns Tuesday, March 8th at 9:00pm ET/PT on ABC.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.

Marvel\'s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. First Aired Sep. 2013

Agent Phil Coulson, Agent Melinda May, Agent Grant Ward, Agent Leo Fitz, Agent Jemma Simmons, Skye,