Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Clark Gregg teases his 'very strange,' 'mysterious' season 6 role

Agent Phil Coulson isn’t here anymore, but someone else is.

(Spoiler warning) Marvel’s trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 made it very clear that the same Coulson who walked off into the sunset to die in the season 5 finale did not survive. Yet, here the character stands — or, rather, here a character stands — in the skin of Coulson.

“Mysterious, eh?” actor Clark Gregg remarked while teasing his mind-boggling role in the upcoming episodes to Marvel host Lorraine Cink in the video above.

So who is he? Is this a doppelgänger or clone? Some sort of shape-shifter or alternate reality figure? A robot, even?

Gregg said it was “very strange, very strange” to return to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in what he then confirmed to be someone who is definitely not Coulson.

“The Coulson role and persona, though always evolving and always having new parts of him revealed to me by our writers, became a very familiar skin,” he said. “And to change all that and find myself playing another very mysterious person who is not Phil Coulson and the mystery of who that person is and why he looks like that is something that they’ve done groundbreaking, wild stuff with that I’m really lucky to play.”

We at least know this mystery character has “never heard” of S.H.I.E.L.D., per the trailer. With Mack (Henry Simmons) as the new director, the puzzle will hopefully be solved as the gang searches for a frozen Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who’s lost somewhere in space.

Season 6 doesn’t yet have an announced premiere date, but the show will return to ABC this summer.

Related content:

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 trailer reveals Coulson’s fate, raises more questions
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. renewed for season 7 by ABC
• Clark Gregg returning to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to direct season 6 opener