"The New Deal" is the first episode of the seventh season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows a Life Model Decoy (LMD) of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they race to stop the Chronicoms from unraveling history in 1931. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by George Kitson and directed by Kevin Tancharoen.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward. The episode begins where the sixth season ended, with the characters traveling to the 1930s. Filming took place in California beginning in February 2019, with authentic period costumes designed for the season and visual effects used to help create the period setting. Patton Oswalt guest stars as an ancestor of his Koenig characters while Darren Barnet portrays Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, the father of Gideon Malick, another character from previous seasons.
"The New Deal" originally aired on ABC on May 27, 2020, and was watched by 1.82 million viewers. The episode received positive reviews, with critics highlighting Gregg and his return to the Coulson character after portraying a different character in the sixth season. Praise also went to Oswalt's guest appearance as well as the episode's story and pacing.
Plot
In 1931 New York City, a group of aliens called Chronicoms steal the faces of three police officers and kill a contact from a local speakeasy. Meanwhile, having just arrived in the past to stop the Chronicoms from changing history, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jemma Simmons introduces Director Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie and Agent Daisy Johnson to an LMD version of the late former Director Phil Coulson, who struggles with his existence and two years' worth of adventures that S.H.I.E.L.D. went through that he was not around for. Taking on period-appropriate disguises, Johnson and Agent Deke Shaw investigate the faceless officers and are attacked by the Chronicoms, though they overpower one and take him back to their mobile headquarters, Zephyr One. Concurrently, Coulson and Mack investigate the speakeasy since it will become a future S.H.I.E.L.D. asset and meet its owner, Ernest "Hazard" Koenig, who reveals that the police officers were providing security for a function in honor of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents go undercover to protect the future president, believing the Chronicoms will target him since he will found S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predecessor, the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), in the 1940s. However, when Simmons overloads the captive Chronicom's mind, she forces it to reveal their actual target: Koenig's employee, Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, father of future Hydra leader, Gideon Malick. Realizing that they have to save Hydra to ensure S.H.I.E.L.D.'s future, the team rescues Freddy from the Chronicoms just after he received a job to deliver a package from a Hydra contact, though they get separated in the process. Aboard Zephyr One, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Chronicom ally, Enoch, helps heal Agent Melinda May from injuries she sustained during the team's previous mission, but she wakes up earlier than expected and evades him.
Production Development In November 2018, ahead of the release of its sixth season, ABC renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a seventh. Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb revealed in July 2019 that this would be the series' last season, and stated that it had been designed to "tie up any threads" and try to create a satisfying conclusion to the story. The season's story features the team trying to save the world from invasion by the Chronicoms. They used time travel to do this, allowing the season to explore the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. and "look back at everything we've done", beginning in 1930s New York prior to the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. In August, one of the season's episodes was revealed to be titled "The New Deal" and written by George Kitson. It was confirmed to be the first episode of the season in May 2020, when Kevin Tancharoen was revealed to have directed it.
Writing The episode picks up from the sixth season's cliffhanger ending, which showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell, as well as the series' writers, were able to plan since the seventh season was ordered while they were working on the sixth. Whedon explained that the time travel story for the season begins in the 1930s because the writers wanted to start "back at the very origin of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and to create a challenge for the series' crew who had to reinvent the costumes and sets of the series each season. Tancharoen acknowledged that the period setting created "something for every department to sink their teeth into" despite there being no increase to the series' budget for the final season. The episode introduces the season's rules for time travel with the mantra "let's make ripples, not waves", and also sets up a twist where the characters have to save Hydra in order to save S.H.I.E.L.D. The latter was devised as complex moral decision for the agents to debate that would create conflict within the team. Bell compared the decision to the question of would one kill baby Adolf Hitler if they could. The episode also introduces a theme of exploring reactions to the series' diverse cast in past time periods.
Darren Barnet was not familiar with the series, which he felt helped in his portrayal of Freddy Malick, because Freddy "has no clue to what's going on", but did watch the season three episodes featuring Gideon Malick. Barnet also listened to music from the 1930s and 1940s, particularly of his grandfather, Charlie Barnet, who was a musician in the 1930s in New York City, and old radio interviews to help him with his New York accent, which he "tweaked" a little. He described Freddy as "a kid who's been dealt a bad hand and he's on this interesting cusp of deciding if he's going to be good or bad", which the actor felt was an interesting character arc to portray.
Casting
With the season renewal, main cast members Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward were confirmed to be returning from previous seasons as Melinda May, Daisy Johnson / Quake, Jemma Simmons, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and Deke Shaw, respectively. Series star Clark Gregg also returns as his character Phil Coulson, portraying a Life Model Decoy version of the character in the seventh season.
In May 2020, Patton Oswalt was revealed to be returning for the season, portraying Ernest "Hazard" Koening. He previously played various present-day Koenig siblings in previous seasons of the series. Also in May, Darren Barnet was revealed to be guest starring in the season, portraying Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, the father of Gideon Malick who was portrayed by Powers Boothe in previous seasons. Barnet originally auditioned to play one of the cops in the episode, before being called back to read for Freddy and ultimately got cast in the role. Joel Stoffer was also confirmed to be reprising his recurring role of Enoch in the seventh season. They guest star alongside Tobias Jelinek as police captain William Dole and Luke, Joe Reegan as a Chronicom, Nora Zehetner as Freddy's contact, Greg Finley as Tillman, and Luke Baines as Luke. Additionally, Joseph Culp appears in the episode as Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Design Costumes Costume designer Whitney Galitz did extensive research on 1930s clothing for the season, using material from her college studies as well as photographs and other primary references. She felt this research was often overlooked by other television series designing period costumes on a limited schedule. Galitz wanted to ensure that the costumes were appropriate to the period, including authentically portraying vintage police uniforms, and that they were worn as they would have been at the time (down to the correct underwear). Imogene Chayes of Marvel's Visual Development group provided concept art for the costumes. The opening scenes of the episode required almost 200 different costumes for background actors, and the series' costume department had two weeks to design and create these. Galitz had dedicated teams working on the background actors for the opening exterior scenes, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's event. Due to the large number of costumes, High Society Custom Tailor provided custom suits that the series' in-house tailor was unable to make, and Galitz worked with Western Costume for the vintage police uniforms. She also had to source 60 period black tuxedos for the FDR event, which she called "pretty difficult", since many they found were either deteriorating or did not fit modern-day sizing standards. Johnson's purple dress and green gown were custom made, as were many of the other costumes used in the various stunt sequences since vintage pieces would have been difficult to find multiple of. Galitz estimated that 50 costumes were built for this episode and for the next episode, "Know Your Onions".
Yo-Yo Rodriguez continues to wear pants in the episode rather than dresses or skirts, a decision that was made by Cordova-Buckley and the wardrobe department. This was part practical and part staying true to the style of the character, with Cordova-Buckley saying, "There's a very modern woman in that [choice.] It's never about looking pretty... It's always about, 'This is who I am, and this is how I can be the best version of who I am.'" Despite this, the character does wear high heels rather than her normal boots since the latter would have exposed the team. Barnet was originally given hightop shoes to wear, but he suggested boots as an alternative, and ended up with "big, thick boots with steel plates on the bottoms".
Hair Head of hair and makeup Shay Sanford used the break between the end of season six filming and starting on season seven to prepare for the 1930s setting, "just to see what the vibe" of the era was. When work on the episode began in earnest, Sanford was concerned about many of the actors having long hair, since that was not a style in the 1930s. Sanford described women of the era as becoming "more vibrant looking" because of the advent of feature films and the end of the Great Depression, and wanted the actors to look this part, while hiding the length of their hair. To achieve this, Sanford used a mixture of braiding and curling to "anchor everything together". Since many of the background actors also had long hair, Sanford used "cheaper" wigs to hide their hair. Oswalt was given a side part for his hairstyle, along with a small tooth comb to style his hair. Sanford said giving men a side part "changes everything", sometimes avoiding the need for a hair cut.
Title sequence The episode introduces a new "old-style noir" title card with a cursive, angled font, reflecting the 1930s setting of the episode. It also includes "Marvel Presents" above the logo, and the copyright boilerplate with Roman numerals below it, resembling older film titles. Ian Cardona of Comic Book Resources called the title card "a perfect throwback" given the setting of the episode, and combined with the episode's music it "lets viewers know, right off the bat, what type of aesthetic this new season will adhere to". He also noted that in addition to being an old film reference, the inclusion of "Marvel Presents" was an homage to Marvel Comics that often feature a title page stating 'Marvel Comics Presents'".
Filming and visual effects