S.H.I.E.L.D. Will Return To The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Says Samuel L. Jackson

After Phil Coulson and the agency helped assemble The Avengers, an ABC television series spin-off launched to tell the ongoing adventures of the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.  But S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't long for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hydra had infiltrated the group, and the agency was brought down by the events seen in Captain America: Winter Soldier. While the team has continued as a small unofficial faction in the tv series, they have not been seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since. The Marvel movie and television groups have been divided, and even those involved in the shows don't have much hope for future crossovers. It's almost like the Marvel universe has been split into two entirely separate cinematic and television dimensions that not even Doctor Strange can merge.

But there may be hope for SHIELD to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At least if you believe Samuel L Jackson, who plays former SHIELD director Nick Fury. Could a SHIELD MCU return actually happen?

ComingSoon talked to Samuel L Jackson while he was doing press for Tim Burtons Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Jackson was asked if SHIELD will return to the MCU, and his response was:

"Yeah! For sure, definitely."

Sounds like he might know something we don't... until his follow-up response leads us to believe this might just be his own optimism speaking:

Why wouldn't there be? There's some way of fixing what they created, and hopefully somebody has that going on or Nick Fury is out there — wherever he is, probably hanging out with Jules and walking the world — figuring out what happened and how it got to that particular place. Maybe they'll find out that all that was part of a ruse to get to something else also. That would be great. They'll bring me back somehow, some way, for some reason. I mean, they didn't have me around to referee the kids when they didn't go to their rooms and got in this big old fight. We'll see what happens.

But even if Nick Fury himself believes that S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably have a role to play in the battle with Thanos doesn't mean we'll ever see them again in the MCU. I would definitely bet money that the former SHIELD Director Nick Fury will return for Avengers: Infinity War, but that doesn't mean we'll see Skye of Agent Coulson again on the big screen.

And if we did, how would they even explain the fact that Phil Coulson has returned from the dead to the Marvel movie audience that doesn't follow the television series. I watched the first two seasons before giving up on the show, and I don't even think I remember them giving a plausible explanation for the whole thing. I can't imagine they could pull it off in a line of inserted dialogue during the epic chaos that will be Infinity War.