Clark Gregg calls Coulson the ‘cockroach’ of the MCU ahead of surprise S.H.I.E.L.D. return

Marvel and ABC finally dropped the first trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sixth season last week, but it arguably left fans with more questions than answer. Now, the OG agent himself has opened up to provide a few answers.

**Spoilers ahead for Season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, as well as the initial Season 6 trailer**

After saving the world a few too many times, Coulson was on the verge of death at the end of Season 5. The first look at Season 6 seemingly confirmed he really is gone, with Mack leading the team forward for a new era of S.H.I.E.L.D. But, then we reached the “stinger” moment of the teaser — which revealed Clark Gregg is back for Season 6, he just won’t be playing Coulson anymore. Wait, what?

The trailer seems to set up this mystery man as a villain, though there’s plenty we don’t know. Is he a Skrull? A robot? A shapeshifter? Something else? We’ll have to wait until the summer to find out.

In the meantime, Gregg confirmed he’s definitely not playing Coulson this time around, and said it’s been “very strange” getting into the head of a new character wearing the same face.

“The Coulson role and persona is always evolving, and having new parts of him revealed to me by our writers became a very familiar skin in a way,” he told Marvel. “To kind of change all that, and find myself playing this other, very mysterious person who is not Phil Coulson, the mystery of who that person is, and why he looks like that, is something they’ve done groundbreaking, wild stuff with that I’m really lucky to play.”

As for his return in general, Coulson joked that not even death (or a few of them) can keep him away from the MCU for long. In addition to his return to S.H.I.E.L.D. this summer, Gregg will also be playing a younger version of Coulson on the big screen in Captain Marvel.

“They used to say he’s the glue of the Marvel Universe. I now think he’s the cockroach of the Marvel Universe [laughs],” he said. “The whole thing can go down. There can be snaps, whatever. He’s not killable apparently. He’s still going to be around.”

Have some theories on Gregg’s new role? Glad Coulson is still a major player almost a decade later?

(Via Marvel)