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

Due to its broadcast schedule, the season was split into three "pods": Ghost Rider for the first eight episodes, featuring recurring guest star Gabriel Luna as the supernatural Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider and exploring mysticism in the MCU alongside the film Doctor Strange (2016); LMD, referring to the new Life Model Decoy program, for the next seven episodes which focus on recurring guest star Mallory Jansen as the LMD Aida; and Agents of Hydra for the final seven episodes, partly set in a "what if" virtual reality that allowed the return of former series regular Brett Dalton as Grant Ward.

The season is also affected by the events of the film Captain America: Civil War (2016), and continues storylines established in the canceled series Agent Carter.

[1] Critical response to the season was positive, with many feeling that each pod was better than the last and in particular praising the visual effects and tone of Ghost Rider, the writing and acting of LMD, and the character development and political commentary explored during Agents of Hydra.

"[50] The end of the episode "What If..." features an onscreen tribute to Bill Paxton, who died in February 2017 and had portrayed John Garrett in the series' first season.

[51] The series paid additional tribute to Paxton in "All the Madame's Men" with promos during The Bakshi Report news segment showcasing John Garrett as a fallen American hero.

[57] Executive producer Jeffrey Bell noted the writers tried to continue the tradition of "finding new combinations and new conflicts" between different sets of characters, given "a lot of procedurals [see] the same people doing the same thing for five years".

Pairings that would be explored included Coulson and Mack, continuing from the end of season three, who have a mutual respect for one another due to their relationships with Daisy, and Leo Fitz and Holden Radcliffe, who work together.

The major connection ultimately became the Darkhold, which leads from the magic of Ghost Rider to the advanced science of LMD and then the Framework in Agents of Hydra.

[78] Since the beginning of the show, the producers had wanted to introduce the concept of LMDs, which Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb noted "have always been part of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"[61] The pod ends with the Melinda May LMD seemingly destroying herself and all the other known LMDs besides Aida, concluding her specific arc which explored the nature of humanity and identity.

[68] This continues the season's focus on the nature of identity and reality, having "payoff[s] to all the reflection[s] on the past" such as Mack's tragic loss of his daughter and Fitz's troubled relationship with his father.

On approaching this subject, Tancharoen said that there was no nervousness in the writer's room, and Whedon said that the similarities to Trump's America was simply an attempt to "paint the reality where, what if the world just turned upside down?"

"[67] Whedon noted that the pod does not entirely take place in the Framework,[67] and that the characters "have their full memories of what happened" once they return to the real world.

[82] The producers felt the impact of the "what if" scenario comes from rooting the changes in character choices, with Bell saying, "I will give the writers room credit that everything that was chosen had an emotional resonance.

[84] Also returning from earlier in the series are Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez,[30] Axle Whitehead as J. T. James / Hellfire,[40][45] Adrian Pasdar as Glenn Talbot,[41] Ava Acres as Katya Belyakov,[85] Patton Oswalt as Billy, Sam and Thurston Koenig,[46] and Briana Venskus, Maximilian Osinski, and Alexander Wraith as Agents Piper, Davis, and Anderson, respectively.

[32][33] Other recurring guests revealed were Lilli Birdsell as Lucy Bauer, a worker at Momentum Energy;[34][35] Jason O'Mara as Jeffrey Mace / Patriot, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[117][118] In December, Whedon said that Peggy Carter "is a part of the universe, and she's a character we care about", and that there was a good chance of having bigger connections to her show moving forward after the Ghost Rider pod.

In addition to the Darkhold, this includes the introduction of Ghost Rider, with Whedon explaining in July 2016, that "the Marvel [Cinematic] Universe is moving into new waters [with the upcoming release of Doctor Strange].

explores darker territory in its fourth season with the thrilling introduction of Ghost Rider, setting up an action-packed new chapter of Marvel's edgier mythologies.

"[161] Reviewing the premiere, Terri Schwartz of IGN praised the introduction of Ghost Rider and subsequent darker tone which "will eventually allow [the series] to sit more comfortably beside its corporate cousins over on Netflix", but did feel that there were some "growing pains" with the transition to more mature material.

[163] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush said, "I'm nervous for Season 4 overall, especially if said reinvention doesn't goose the ratings like Marvel and ABC hope, but "The Ghost" is reason enough for some casual optimism."

[166] Valentine said that the beginning of LMD "doesn't maintain the heights of [the series'] days with Ghost Rider in the driver's seat, but it does manage to remain a solid entry on the airwaves."

kept its fleet and efficient pacing, but bent it to the service of a dark and compelling narrative arc already paying dividends in terms of rewarding long-time viewers with deep-pull references and stories".

has been getting steadily better each season, and even in a year that had strong arcs like Ghost Rider and LMD, this final storyline tops them all ... the show has essentially managed to create an alternate reality where it can work out longstanding issues and address unfinished character beats, all while smartly delivering action and thrills ... And insofar as this keeps working, it's managed to turn the TV equivalent of a fun B-movie into a superior television show.

[178] Amanda Marcotte of Salon felt that by May 2017, there "hasn't been time for most of pop culture to react to [Trump's election] but there is one truly remarkable exception to the rule: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"[179] Michal Schick of Hypable noted that the political commentary had been running throughout the season, with Nadeer and the Humans First movement, but that "in the face of murderous demons with combustible craniums and body-swapping LMD's, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The mistress of the Framework's perversities is Aida, as Madame Hydra, and it's hard to imagine a more different figure from Trump ... By omitting this easiest and most obvious point of satire, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[181] Carli Velocci at TheWrap also discussed the season in relation to Secret Empire, noting that Agents of Hydra "hasn't spawned a digital mountain of outrage" like the comic event.

She continued that the series "manages to create a world where Hydra is the establishment, but every other plot point is about questioning it explicitly" and "what's more inspiring than seeing an actual symbol of America not taking crap from Nazis?