Bill Paxton's Character Wasn't Coming Back to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Many of us are still mourning the loss of beloved character actorBill Paxtonwho sadly passed away at the age of 61. He died on Saturday, February 25 from complications following a surgery. There has been some speculation recently that hisAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.character may be readying for a return, which would definitely have been affected by his passing. Marvel has made it clear that was not in the cards.

According to a report fromEntertainment Weekly, sources from Marvel have confirmed to them thatAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.had no plans to bring backBill Paxton’s character John Garrett, who was featured in the show’s first season. Given some of the recent happenings onAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 4, some believed that Garrett could be readying for a return, which left some wondering if the show’s upcoming episodes would need to be altered. That won’t be the case, but theAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Twitter account did release a statement following the news of his death.

“Marvel’s #AgentsofSHIELD is deeply saddened by the loss of Bill Paxton. His contributions to theMarvel Universewill be remembered fondly.”

Warning: there are spoilers ahead for those who are not caught up on Marvel’sMarvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.During season 1 it was revealed that there were a ton of Hydra sleeper agents inside of S.H.I.E.L.D., which served as a big tie-in forCaptain America: The Winter Soldierat the time. It then came to light that John Garrett and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who was at the time acore memberof the team, were both Hydra agents. Garrett met his end in theAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 1 finale, but when it comes to comic book related things, dead is never really dead.

Case in point,Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4recently introduced something called the Framework, which is a digital world that sort of works likeThe Matrix. In said world, Hydra actually reigns supreme and it was recently revealed thatBrett Daltonwill be coming back as Grant Ward via the Framework. That caused many to logically consider the possibility thatBill Paxtoncould also be coming back as John Garrett, but it turns out that wasn’t on the table. Or, at the very least, it wasn’t part of Marvel’s plans before his passing.

Not that we would be able to haveBill Paxtonreturn to the show now, but it is at least nice to know that we didn’t miss out on any great storylines and another potentially great performance from a great actor. Aside from Marvel paying tribute toPaxton, some of hisS.H.I.E.L.D.co-stars such asClark Gregg,Ming-Na Wen,Elizabeth Henstridge, and Executive ProducerMaurissa Tancharoenall also paid tribute to him on social media.Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.is currently taking a little break, but the show is set to return on April 4 at 10 p.m. on ABC. you may check out all of theBill Paxtontributes for yourself below.