Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Spoilers: Coulson's Alien Problem, HYDRA and More

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to ABC tonight with its Season 2 premiere. But before the show airs, showrunners jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen sat down with EW.com to offer a preview of what fans can expect from the sophomore season of the show.

Firstly, the duo talked about the landscape of the show when it returns.

"Tancharoen: We're living in a new paradigm. S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are viewed as one and the same and basically seen as a terrorist organization by the world. So Coulson and his team have been essentially driven underground, forced to truly operate in the shadows.
Whedon: We get to see them as true underdogs for the first time. You got a little taste of it at the end of last season, but most of the season we had all the support and all the billions of dollars we could ever want behind us and now we get to see them as a true underdog. We also get to see Coulson stepping into a new role and not only have to wrestle with how do you rebuild something from the ground up, but what does it mean to be the boss of it?"

EW asked if the rest of Coulson's (Clark Gregg) team would realize that something is wrong with him, as evidenced in the Season 1 finale. "Yes, that's another thing that we'll be exploring," Tancharoen replied. "What does it mean for the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be essentially a wild card?"

Tancharoen also said it "would be really cool" if the show explored how the blue alien serum affects Coulson. When EW pointed out the similar looking blue aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy, Whedon simply replied, "There were blue aliens in it." Tancharoen added with a laugh, "There are blue aliens in the Marvel world. We are a part of it."

For much, much more on Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., head over to EW.com.