Warning! The following contains spoilers for the upcoming Season 5 of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Read and watch at your own risk!
Apparently, five days was too long of a wait for Marvel. Fans were initially supposed to watch the Season 5 premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. December 1st, but thanks to ABC, they're getting a sneak peak a bit early. The news was revealed via Clark Gregg on Twitter who joked that the release was in honor of actress Natalia Cordova's birthday. Gregg linked the first 17 minutes of the season premiere, which can be found below:
Well, it didn't take long for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to start handing out some answers. For starters, we see a glimpse of the group that froze the team in the diner and sent them into space. Not much information is known on that front, minus the fact that whoever is leading the operation is posing as a human as they strip their flesh suit off just prior to showering. Who are these people, and why did they blast the team into space?
Better question, did the Agents of S.H.l.E.L.D. team only get sent into space, or did something else happen as well? Once aboard the ship, Coulson and crew meet Virgil who informs the team he's a "big fan". After he tells the team he has studied them for years, it appears quite obvious at this point that they didn't just get transported to space, but into the future as well. As for what reason this was done, we don't have time to find out as Virgil is killed by a Marvel villain race that appears to be important to at least this part of Season 5.
The Vrellnexians, as they're called, are a race of aliens that operate like a hive-mind. No Vrellnexian has a sense of individuality, and from what is known in the comics, they're fans of enslaving other species for commercial purposes. As far as why they're on the ship, Virgil says they're an anomaly which appears to indicate that the human outpost was planning on the team's arrival. That much we already knew from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. preview as Virgil states that Coulson and the team will save humanity just before his brain gets shish-kabob'd.
Hopefully, more answers will come regarding the current situation in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the special two-hour premiere Friday, December 1st at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Fans better get used to the team being in space, because that's apparently a place they're probably going to be for a long time. For more on other upcoming programming, be sure to visit our fall premiere guide and midseason premiere guide to get the scoop on all new and returning shows. For a look at some shows that didn't snag a renewal in 2017, check out our cancellation guide.
