Marvel has confirmed that SHIELD forces were present during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, and in doing so they've inadvertently made the lack of an appearance from Agent Phil Coulson even worse. Widely considered to be the most ambitious crossover event in the history of cinema, Avengers: Endgame featured a staggering amount of callbacks and cameos that reference the events of practically every preceding film in the MCU. The culmination of the Infinity Saga was a colossal cinematic event that managed to live up to the outlandishly high expectations set by its predecessors.
Appropriately, Avengers: Endgame's final battle featured many characters. Almost every hero previously established in the MCU was present in some form or another, which was made possible by the film's reality- and time-bending narrative. Though this led to some continuity issues, the final battle was epically triumphant, with the assembled forces of the MCU uniting against Thanos and his army in order to undo his Avengers: Infinity War snap, which wiped out half of all life in the universe. However, one of the franchise's heroes was absent from the battle: SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, who was killed by Loki in The Avengers.
Promotional AvengerCon material released alongside Ms. Marvel has confirmed that SHIELD forces were also present for Endgame's battle, but this actually makes Coulson's snub even worse. As he was instrumental in the formation of the Avengers, having him present for the battle would have been a good way for Marvel to acknowledge his importance, and if other SHIELD forces were there, it would have been possible for Coulson to appear. However, simply confirming that SHIELD was present without having shown any recognizable members just underlines that the agency was an afterthought, which itself seems like a subtle and most likely unintended insult to Coulson.
Though Agent Coulson was technically dead at the time of the battle, there are easy narrative workarounds that could have been employed to have him appear. SHIELD was technically leaderless at the time, as Nick Fury was snapped away in Infinity War — if indeed SHIELD had agents in Avengers: Endgame's battle, that would require the use of time-altering power to have them appear. These could easily have also been used to have Coulson join the battle in some capacity.
As it stands, it seems that Coulson was not present for the battle, and any attempts to retroactively insert him into the event — as has happened with SHIELD — would be singularly transparent. Though Ms. Marvel created an Endgame plot hole by confirming SHIELD had a presence in the battle, the real implication is that Coulson's importance was either ignored or overlooked by Marvel. Without Coulson's sacrifice, the Avengers would never have formed, and though so many other improbable characters were included in Avengers: Endgame's final battle, including nameless SHIELD agents, Coulson has now seemingly been snubbed all over again.
After confirming that SHIELD forces were present for Avengers: Endgame's final battle, Marvel has made Agent Coulson's snubbing even more egregious.Niall Gray