The S.H.I.E.L.D. team bid farewell to their friends Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter with a "spy's goodbye" on this week's episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The agents sacrificed their livelihood to protect the anonymity of S.H.I.E.L.D. and denied having any involvement with the spy organization when Russian authorities arrested them.
Bobbi and Hunter have walked away from S.H.I.E.L.D., but they will remain active in the Marvel universe in the potential new ABC series, "Marvel's Most Wanted." Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood will spinoff their "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters and go on the run as ex-spies trying to uncover a conspiracy against them.
The early exit of their characters was to accommodate Palicki and Blood's shooting schedule for the "Most Wanted" pilot episode. The pilot filmed earlier this year and executive producer for both projects, Jeffrey Bell, believes it would have been "disingenuous" to write their characters off "S.H.I.E.L.D." for a few episodes and then have them return.
We're gonna miss them, too. https://t.co/Am61VGlLMa
— Agents of SHIELD (@AgentsofSHIELD) March 24, 2016
The plan is for Bobbi and Hunter to have their own separate adventures with no ties to S.H.I.E.L.D.
"It is not a S.H.I.E.L.D. show. It is not a S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off. It's a show about these two characters living their life and the adventures that they have together," Bell said. "If the door was too wide open, I think it begs too many questions of, 'Well, why don't they call Coulson every week for this?' 'Why didn't these people come in?'"
He continued, "Not that we can't hopefully find ways to tie things together, but you didn't want to leave it with such a wide open door that it was a separate branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. doing other S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff, that would ask you why these other characters weren't involved in the day-to-day episodes."
They won't be totally alone. Delroy Lindo will play Dominic Fortune, a rogue adventurer who Bobbi and Hunter form an uneasy alliance. He agrees to protect them as long as they help him with his agenda. "Marvel's Most Wanted" has also added Oded Fehr and Fernanda Andrade in unannounced roles.
A tentative title card for the new series has also been revealed. A sniper target fills the "o" in "Most," but aside from that, the art really has no other defining features.
"Marvel's Most Wanted" will be looking to set itself apart from the other Marvel TV shows that currently consist of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Agent Carter" on ABC as well as "Daredevil" and "Jessica Jones" on Netflix ("Luke Cage" will also premiere later this year on the streaming service).
"This is a show, at its heart, about a relationship. It's about a man and a woman who love each other, who fight, who've been married, who got divorced, who are still together, and they also happen to be ex-spies who can kick ass. We're looking to find a separate world for them in this larger universe," Bell said.
Coulson and his team will try their best to move on when "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." returns with a new episode on Tuesday, March 29 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
