Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cast Previews Jason O'Mara's New Mystery Director

Get ready to meet the secret character from Marvel Comics history who's running the show this season

By Billy Nilles Sep 27, 2016 6:22 PMTags
Watch: Who's the New Director of "S.H.I.E.L.D."?

Get ready to meet the man who dared to replace Phil Coulson.

After last week's season four premiere introduced us to new addition Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna), this week's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will finally reveal just who is answering to the title "Director" at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ now that the agency has been reinstated and Coulson's (Clark Gregg) been demoted to lowly field agent. And as the cast tells it, when the guy's identity is finally made known, fan reaction will be wild.

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2016 Fall TV Spoiler-rama
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"Oh my God, it's going to be crazy. First of all, Jason O'Mara plays him and he's just brilliant. We're so lucky to get to work with him," Elizabeth Henstridge told E! News at the show's season premiere event. "No one can get through a scene without completely crossing into laughter. He's so talented. What can we say about his character, Iain?"

"Nothing," her co-star and on-screen paramour Iain de Caestecker deadpanned in response.

After the premiere we know that Henstridge's Simmons is working closely with the new Director, causing tension among the team regarding where her loyalties may lie. But what's Fitz's relationship like with the guy? "I think Fitz would rather things have stayed the way they [were.] I think he still believes Coulson's the guy for the job and the only guy for the job, so I think that's where he's come from," de Caestecker teased. "So whoever it is, he'd be kind of resistant to them."

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cast Tackles All Your Burning Season 4 Premiere Questions
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Ditto for Mack. "I don't think he likes the new guy. I honestly don't. That's the way I'm playing it," Henry Simmons told us. "He's very weary of him. If you notice, when new people come in, Mack is really hesitant. He's very cautious."

So, what do we know about the new guy? Not much. When O'Mara was cast in the role, the announcement revealed that the character was one "whose Marvel roots go back to the 1940s." But, as is often the case with S.H.I.E.L.D., O'Mara's version of the guy won't be a direct translation.

"I think it will be a lot like some of the other character that we've had," S.H.I.E.L.D. exec producer and head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb told us. "They'll recognize the name, they'll recognize the importance that he plays in the game, but I think they'll also know, because the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes things and bends them just a little bit, takes things that maybe don't make as much sense as they did when they were—because you know, the Marvel Universe on the publishing side is in many ways 70 years old."

Any theories on who the new director might be? Let us know in the comments below and find out if you were right when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduces him tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC.