Endgame’s Cut Agents Of SHIELD Cameo Would’ve Made Canon Issues Worse

A Daniel Whitehall cameo in Avengers: Endgame would’ve thrown Agents of SHIELD‘s already-shaky canon status into further chaos. Across seven seasons of superhero-tinged spy shenanigans, Agents of SHIELD touched upon Hydra, Ghost Rider, Life Model Decoys, and plenty more Marvel hallmarks besides. Though Agents of SHIELD suffered no lack of top-level villains, Daniel Whitehall (later revealed as Hydra’s Werner Reinhardt) was arguably the best of the baddies. Played by Reed Diamond, Whitehall worked under Red Skull, but was captured by SHIELD after World War II and given a stern interrogation by one Peggy Carter. Whitehall returned to prominence in the modern day, where he led Hydra and continued to pursue his previous experiments into Inhumans.

There’s no question Daniel Whitehall stands among Agents of SHIELD‘s greatest villains… but whether he’s an MCU villain is another matter altogether. Agents of SHIELD‘s relationship with MCU canon is up there with the Bermuda Triangle and D.B. Cooper in the halls of history’s big unanswered questions. When Agents of SHIELD first premiered in 2013, there was no denying its link to the MCU. Phil Coulson’s resurrection after getting impaled by Loki in The Avengers and the fall of SHIELD from Captain America: The Winter Soldier both became running plot points, while the likes of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) made cameo appearances.

While Agents of SHIELD‘s early seasons drew plenty of connections to MCU movies, the affection wasn’t exactly reciprocated. Agents of SHIELD‘s only representation on the big screen has been Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson, but even then, there’s precious little crossover. Intriguingly, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame came close to breaking that trend. Unused visual effects shots (via BEJT_T on Twitter) designed for the scene where the Avengers plan their #TimeHeist would’ve included photographs of Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull, Toby Jones’ Arnim Zola… and Reed Diamond’s Daniel Whitehall. Since Whitehall would’ve been in SHIELD custody during Tony Stark and Steve Rogers’ trip to the 1970s, a live-action appearance could’ve also been possible (although he was kept at The Rat, rather than Camp Lehigh), and Diamond responded to the images with a tongue-in-cheek comment about Marvel checking his availability, suggesting he would’ve been interested.

Daniel Whitehall’s digital face appearing in Avengers: Endgame would’ve firmly grounded Agents of SHIELD within MCU canon, finally turning the one-sided references into a two-way street. Sadly, enshrining Agents of SHIELD within MCU continuity would’ve also been more of a hindrance than a help to the show. Although Agents of SHIELD certainly started as an MCU spinoff, the gap between TV and movie narratives grew larger and more obvious with each passing season. Coulson’s crew made virtually zero attempt to incorporate Thanos and Avengers: Infinity War into its narrative, and by Agents of SHIELD season 6, direct references to MCU events had dried up, turning into more general Marvel nods instead. Agents of SHIELD happily did its own thing from there, relying on awesome character chemistry and quirky humor than teasing links to the MCU.

When Avengers: Endgame released in 2019, Agents of SHIELD was an entity unto itself, enjoying the freedom and independence MCU separation brought. Had the Avengers’ time heist name-checked Daniel Whitehall, Agents of SHIELD‘s canon status would’ve been thrown into turmoil all over again, muddling a final run of episodes that were largely MCU-free. If Marvel movies wanted to acknowledge Agents of SHIELD, 2013-2017 was the time to do so, not 2019 when Coulson and the gang had already pretty much gone solo.

That’s not to say a Daniel Whitehall cameo in Avengers: Endgame couldn’t be plausibly explained. Though Agents of SHIELD‘s relationship to the MCU remains ambiguous, the safest assumption is that the TV timeline takes place in a different universe, where Earth history was more or less identical to the prime reality up until 2012, before splintering off. As such, the MCU would have its own version of Whitehall, explaining his photo sitting alongside Red Skull and Zola on SHIELD’s records. Still, avoiding the debate altogether was probably the safer bet.