This past July, Marvel announced on Twitter that the upcoming seventh season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be the show’s last. The tweet from the show’s official account included an acknowledgment of the fans of the show, thanking them for making Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the “longest-running Marvel TV series to date.” 

Next summer’s Season 7 will be the last for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Thanks to our fans for allowing us to be the longest-running Marvel TV series to-date. ❤ https://t.co/1PdHDDKXll

— Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (@AgentsofSHIELD) July 18, 2019

Deadline first reported the show’s cancellation in July via an interview with executive producer Jeph Loeb. Loeb commented that his goal going into this final season would be to “build a season that will tie up any threads that are there.”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been ABC’s longest-running Marvel show to date with six seasons so far, as compared to Agent Carter and Inhumans, which ran for two seasons and one season respectively. Given this success, the show’s cancellation may come as a surprise. A recent report from Cinema Blend explains why the show ending after season seven might actually be in Marvel’s best interest.

One reason Cinema Blend proposed for the cancellation of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was the changing landscape of Marvel Television. During this past D23 convention, Marvel announced a huge slate of TV shows being introduced to Disney+. With all of these new shows in the works, it makes sense that Marvel would retire its older shows to focus resources on the new projects. And, as a report from Digital Spy suggests, Marvel may be bringing some of its S.H.I.E.L.D. characters into the wider MCU. At this past Comic-Con Ming-Na Wen, who plays Agent May on the show, stated that the character may have “some sort of incarnation” in the future.

The seventh season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air sometime in the summer of 2020 on ABC. You can view the teaser for the new season below.