It was produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Mutant Enemy Productions, with Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell serving as showrunners.

The main recurring setting of the season is the Bus, a retrofitted Boeing C-17 Globemaster III plane that was designed by visual effects company FuseFX, and created with CGI.

[49] The character arcs were laid out by the series' creative team, with Marvel's only guidelines being to work around Captain America: The Winter Soldier,[50] which sees S.H.I.E.L.D.

"[50] The main cast for the season includes Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, reprising his role from the film series, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Brett Dalton as Grant Ward, Chloe Bennet as Skye, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, and Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons.

[24][53] In April 2013, J. August Richards, one of the stars of the earlier Joss Whedon series Angel, was cast in the pilot in an unspecified role,[54] later revealed to be Mike Peterson,[53] the first live-action portrayal of Deathlok and a recurring character throughout the season.

[34] Other recurring guests in the season include Saffron Burrows as Victoria Hand,[60] David Conrad as Ian Quinn,[61] and Ruth Negga as Raina.

[31][62] In January 2013, Cobie Smulders, who played agent Maria Hill in The Avengers, said that her character may make an appearance in the show and that her commitment to How I Met Your Mother would not prevent her from participating.

[69] The main recurring setting for the season is the Bus, a retrofitted Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, that serves as both the transportation and headquarters of the titular team.

[51]: 35  Construction on the sets for the Bus's interior, interrogation room, and Fitz and Simmons' lab, which first appeared in the pilot and throughout the season, began on December 6, 2012.

[51]: 57  The lower level of the Bus is first seen in "Repairs", which Melton designed to be "a modular area of the plane that is full of pods... [that] we can do anything with", changing based on the episode's needs.

[51]: 103 According to costume designer Ann Foley, Coulson's suits, which she called "his armor", were more "streamlined" and a different cut than the ones he wore in the films, along with custom shirts and "slicker" ties.

[51]: 220  May's flight suit was based on similar ones in the United States Air Force and featured "a tiny Y" 3D printed pattern that was the same used for Maria Hill's costume in The Avengers.

Kevin Lingenfelser started the season focused on 2D supervising, but took over as lead in-house visual effects supervisor after episode eight from David Altenau.

This includes an extra wing and engines in the rear giving the plane the ability to operate vertically for take-offs and landings, and even mid-flight u-turns ... FuseFX was given the opportunity to design the Bus.

"[79] FuseFX also worked on Lola, Coulson's vintage 1962 Chevrolet Corvette which was described as "a classic car and beautiful in its own right, but through digital effects, Fuse has added hovercraft capabilities.

When Coulson needs it, the wheel's rotate into a horizontal position, exposing hidden jet engine ducts that create lifting thrust through the rims of the tires, which double as turbo-fan blades.

[86][87] In June 2013, Clark Gregg explained how the series would tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe films: "...the exciting part is going to be seeing the way that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[96] Three episodes were screened before their initial air dates: "Pilot" at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19, 2013,[97] "Eye Spy" at New York Comic Con on October 12, 2013,[98] and "End of the Beginning" at Marvel's PaleyFest panel for the series on March 23, 2014.

Verizon Wireless served as Declassified's sponsor and created a hub featuring the aftershow alongside "live social feeds, Twitter polling, and sharable clips and graphics".

The production team tried to pair specific artists to the teaser posters based on their previous work and how it connected to the themes and emotion of the intended episode.

Jeph Loeb stated, "It's exciting to bring this art to life once more, exclusively at comic book stores, and to give fans a chance to own the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[105] The poster for "The Only Light in the Darkness", created by Pascal Campion, focuses on Coulson and his cellist lover, Audrey Nathan, while also hinting at the villain for the episode, Marcus Daniels.

Bonus features included behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, as well as the television special, Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe.

[110] In the United Kingdom, the episode debuted as the highest rated drama launch of the year,[111] averaging 3.23 million viewers including the +1 channel and recordings viewed the same night, a share of 14.8 percent of people watching TV in the UK at the time.

is sure to please comic book fans, but the strong ensemble and brisk pacing help to make this better-than-average superhero show accessible to non-fanboys as well.

[97] Critically, the initial screening of the pilot was met with mostly positive reviews, though The New York Times' Brooks Barnes noted that "what goes over well at Comic-Con does not necessarily work in the real world," especially on a network with "Scandal moms and Dancing with the Stars grandparents".

[148] Evan Valentine, writing for Collider, divided the season into highs and lows: highs included the Captain America: The Winter Soldier crossover, with Valentine noting that "The creators had clearly known this moment was coming ... and did a great job of capitalizing [on] it," as well as other tie-ins with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he praised Gregg's performance, stating "What made us fall in love with the character from the first Iron Man to his death in The Avengers is still alive and kicking"; lows of the season included the episodes before the Winter Soldier tie-in, with Valentine feeling that the series "became the show that had to stall its developments and character building to make way for the [tie-in]."

Schwartz felt that the season earned many of its early criticisms from having to "bide time" until the crossover, but "Now that it has the freedom to be the series it was always intended to, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"[156] Merrill Barr, reviewing "Beginning of the End" for Forbes, reiterated this sentiment, stating that "the series finally stands its ground and stakes its claim as a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... By establishing world changing consequences that don't just affect one MCU franchise, but all of them."

It's been a long journey, and there's no question many viewers' patience wore thin toward the end, but that never stopped Marvel from pushing forward to one of the most entertaining hours of television this season and finally cementing a deserved place on the small screen.