ABC

Even as Ghost Rider prepares to light up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, it could be time yet before Marvel’s Avengers-adjacent drama shows us the fully-realized flaming skull. At the very least, the new Spirit of Vengeance still has a sweet ride, now seen cruising around set with a precarious-looking Daisy Johnson hanging on for dear life.

ABC notably pumped Marvel’s brakes this past year, to decline additional Agent Carter, an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff or any other series, but the next could pick up in only a matter of weeks. ABC execs say they’ll meet with Marvel in a few weeks’ time to discuss their options toward a series “we all feel is as creatively strong as it can be.”

The writing for Agent Carter seemed pretty much on the wall with the announcement of Hayley Atwell’s ABC Conviction pilot, even as many suggested the Marvel star could balance filming both. Sadly, Conviction won the day regardless, but according to Atwell, ABC might have commissioned Agent Carter specials to help fill the gap between actual seasons.

Once the patron saint of TV rescues, Netflix seems more focused on its own original content than picking up stragglers, but the wealth of Marvel content had Agent Carter fans optimistic Peggy might live out Season 3 on the streaming service. Sadly not so, as Netflix bosses now admit “it was a business decision more than a creative one.”

The addition of Ghost Rider seemingly confirmed that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. intended to skew darker with Season 4's timeslot move to 10:00 P.M., though one has to wonder what a more adult version of the show looks like. According to the cast and crew, Season 4 will very much have an “after dark” feel, apparently with a heaping helping of sideboob.

Now that the vengeance demon’s out of the bag, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 still has a world of work ahead to make Ghost Rider fit in with its typically super-science approach. Easing into that transition likely steered Agents more toward Marvel NOW! Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes, while Marvel TV bosses suggest that Doctor Strange will open up the MCU to a bit more magical thinking.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gave us some Ghost-ly good news already, but Season 4 may yet be its most Marvel-ous, judging by the Comic-Con 2016 panel. Check out the major new addition for Season 4, and preview a darker tone to come in our full panel report!

We’ll insist to the day we die that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. already had a chain-wielding firebrand, but it looks like Ghost Rider is coming to Season 4 after all. Straight from Comic-Con 2016, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. confirms that the Robbie Reyes iteration of Marvel’s hothead will debut in Season 4, as played by Gabriel Luna.

Over the last few weeks, you might have caught some breathtakingly speculative reports that because Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Comic-Con 2016 promos featured flaming chains, Ghost Rider might be revving up for Season 4 (nevermind the Season 3 Inhuman who actually used a flaming chain), but might the truth lie somewhere in between? A new casting report might just put *a* flaming rider somewhere in our future.

Agent Carter may not return to ABC anytime soon, but that won’t stop Marvel’s TV band from getting back together this fall. Not only do we know when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 and all ABC’s other wares will premiere in 2016, but also when Hayley Atwell’s new legal drama Conviction will make Peggy proud.

Despite an attempt to turn things around with a new showrunner in the middle of the first season, The Muppets hasn’t really caught on with audiences the way ABC had hoped. What once seemed like a surefire hit (it’s the Muppets!) turned into a bizarre experiment (it’s a meta-fake-documentary series!) before ultimately becoming an interesting failure (shrug emoji), at best. The short version: ABC has cancelled The Muppets after just one season.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 will diverge from its predecessors without a direct tie-in to Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, but a new synopsis for the May 10 outing may tip the scales for Iron Man or Captain America. Will Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. be registering its Inhumans in the wake of Marvel’s biggest cinematic showdown?