Whatever happened to Marvel’s Inhumans? For the fans who still care, a coy comment from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Ming-Na Wen will be bad news. At a panel at Heroes & Villains Fan Fest in San Jose this past weekend, the Marvel TV star may have accidentally confirmed the demise of that other Marvel show, Inhumans, which ran for eight episodes on ABC this fall.
At her panel this weekend, Ming-Na Wen was asked by a fan if a crossover between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans was in the works. Wen responded, while trying to call former co-star Brett Dalton (“Ward”) on the phone, “I think that show got…” She catches herself before saying anything more, to the audience’s amusement. That’s when Dalton’s voicemail interrupts Wen, forcing the panel to move on.
Is Inhumans dead? A non-joke told by an actor on a semi-related show can’t be taken as confirmation, but it does point to a fallen show that once had all the promise of a grand epic. Originally announced as a film for November 2019, Marvel’s Inhumans was turned into a TV series with one foot in the theatrical world. Co-produced by IMAX, Inhumans premiered in theaters in late August, to almost zero fanfare and a poor $3.5 million gross, before airing on ABC in September, where abysmal ratings plagued its first-season run.
Inhumans is proof that the Marvel name alone doesn’t guarantee a hit. Still, it was well-established by the producers that the show exists in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s history of Inhumans (humans with alien DNA that grants them special powers) gives a solid foundation for the two worlds to meet. Unfortunately, the poor performance of Inhumans both commercially and critically — it has a 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes — means there’s one part of the MCU even fans didn’t care for.
See Ming-Na Wen spell doom for Inhumans below, beginning at 13:40.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is now airing its fifth season on Friday nights, 9 p.m. Eastern on ABC.
