‘Agents of SHIELD’ spoilers: Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson returning

As it nears the end of its season, and also continues to try to convince others that the show is far better now than it was when it premiered, “Agents of SHIELD” is bringing back some of the big guns … or at least a guy who is huge in the Marvel universe, and a woman who everyone originally wanted to be a series regular here.

First of all, Samuel L. Jackson confirmed to Vulture that his Nick Fury will be back for the season finale, which airs next month. It’s no surprise that Fury will be turning up again, since he’s the real bridge between SHIELD and the superheroes that populate the feature films … who we’ve sadly not seen on the show yet. If ABC really wanted to see the ratings go up, they’d find a way to get Chris Evans or Mark Ruffalo show up for an episode.

Also, Cobie Smulders will be back! TVLine confirms that the actress will make her first scripted TV appearance since the “How I Met Your Mother” finale on the upcoming April 29 episode of the show. Given what happened to her character in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” this is probably going to be rather interesting. She’ll also get a chance to shoot a few scenes in here with Clark Gregg.

All of this information is awesome, but you still have to pose the question: Is all of this a little too little, too late for the show? It’s not going to get those huge demo ratings back that it had in the early going, and this feels ultimately like a case of a series being too timid to get things going out of the gate that they sacrificed themselves viewers, thinking that most people were going to be willing to stay put and wait and see what the show delivers later.

What’s your take on the casting? Share below.