Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Read at your own risk!
EW hit the set on Mitchells final day of production to get his take on leavingS.H.I.E.L.D.
Credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you get an early sense that Lincoln would get killed off?
Part of me was like, But itll probably end up being [someone random].
Then I was like, Actually, no, maybe it is going to be something big.
Ward kind of died, but Brett stayed on the show, therefore youre not losing an actor.
Then I was like, Well, theyre not going to kill off any of the originals.
Thats what the core of the show is.
Shes awesome and shes a comic book character who theyve just introduced and barely used.
Then I was like, Joey, would they kill Joey off?
Hes not a comic book character.
No, hes Latino and hes gay, they better not kill him off.
Then all of a sudden Im like, I think it could be me, straight white guy.
It was a really funny thing.
Early on, before I knew knew, I started to get a feeling that it could be me.
To be perfectly honest, all things considered, I think its the right choice.
Dramatically, its really interesting.
I take my hat off to them for killing the straight white guy.
Theres been so much talk aboutkilling off gay charactersor killing off minority characters.
We have such diversity on our show, which is terrific.
When it was me, I was like, touche.
Obviously Im very sad to be saying goodbye, but I think its good for the story.
Is there some solace at least that he gets to go out like a hero?
If youre going to die, I couldnt have written a better ending for the character.
Yeah, theres a little bit of, Cool.
He doesnt want to be in that position.
Hes fing scared, even after the events take place and hes in the quinjet with Hive.
But, yeah, still sad.
You start to see all the possibilities.
I wouldve had fun continuing this journey going into the next season.
But now taking a step back, in hindsight, its absolutely the right choice.
When did you first find out that Lincoln was going to die?
I was like, OK, well, what could this meeting possibly be?
I was like, No, do not get emotional.
I walked in there and they were really lovely, of course.
It was really easy.
Maurissa, Jed, Jeph, and Jeff are wonderful people.
I was just like, Just pull it off, guys, rip it off like a band-aid.
Lets not beat around the bush here.
As soon as I sat down, Jeff Bell was like, This is a sad meeting.
Im like, Get it over with!
They were like, Lincolns the one thats in the quinjet.
OK, fair enough.
They went into the explanation of it.
That was really lovely.
They said some nice things.
I was like, OK, guys, Im going to go.
But yeah, thats how it went down.
What was shooting your death scene like?
Very strange, because were supposed to be in zero gravity.
Of course, we didnt go to a space station to shoot it.
Yeah, so were on wires and cable.
I had a harness on, and were dangling like idiots and trying to pretend like were floating.
Our harnesses were really uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Im tensing my abs like a motherfer because its an ab workout.
Theres a take where Im literally shaking.
I was like, Guys, did that look ridiculous?
because I was shaking through that whole thing.
[Laughs] It was weird.
The hardest stuff was the goodbye scene between Daisy and Lincoln.
We have this scene on comms, and its a goodbye scene.
Shes bawling her eyes out trying to understand why Im doing that.
She thought it was her destiny.
Its a really heartbreaking scene.
That was the tough one.
Once we got that done, its like, Everythings easy.
Whats the feeling like today, the final day of production?
I feel like Im already done.
I shot my last dialogue scene yesterday.
That was weird to say my last original S.H.I.E.L.D.
Plus: The cast reacts to those deaths on sethere.
