With ratings for Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ not what they should be, Marvel has been trying out a variety of things and will now be adding Bill Paxton (‘Aliens’,’2 Guns’) to the roster!

We know a little about Paxton’s role as Agent John Garrett. He’s going to be joining for a multi-episode arc and he’s another agent out of Coulson’s past. While Coulson has always appeared to be a by the books kind of guy, that’s been changing ever since his death and revival so I have a feeling Garrett is going to warm up to him more than he used to. As an ex-convict turned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the comics, Marvel’s description of him as a “rough-and-tumble former cohort of Agent Coulson with a little bit of attitude and cigar-smoking swagger” seems to land right on the mark. Agent Garrett ended up being turned into a cyborg as he was injured in a confrontation with Elektra. With Marvel once again having the rights to Daredevil and company, I wonder if we’ll see a prelude to her popping up here? Perhaps she’ll be on the ‘Daredevil’ series and we’ll see Paxton return for that? The ultimate surprise in my mind would be to have part of it take place in S.H.I.E.L.D. now (introduction through injury, Elektra included) and then have him crossover to Netflix and have him return as a cyborg in their new series. That would just be wishful thinking of course.

Here is official description of Paxton’s character below:

When Garrett got his promotion to Level 7, he refused to sit behind a desk and doesn’t like the formalities of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’s going to help Coulson solve some mysteries and is not afraid to rig an explosive or two.

While the last episode, ‘The Magical Place‘, has even our skeptical reviewer coming around to my point of view that the show is good, ratings are still lagging. Hopefully some of the upcoming changes will push viewership back up and keep it going strong for another few seasons. I mean, without all of Coulson’s Secret still on the table we’re going to need them to give us more of a draw and I hope they can deliver!

What else has Marvel been up to in order to help S.H.I.E.L.D.? Well, with the ‘Thor: The Dark World’ tie-in behind us (which didn’t tie-in as much as it could) it’s hoped that the upcoming ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ related episode will change all that. In addition, fans may be seeing a return of the show’s first super villain  as well as an Iron Man villain joining the fray with Blizzard. On top of that, more Victoria Hand and a guest appearance of Stan Lee will hopefully help push things in the right direction.

So folks are you excited about Paxton making a guest appearance? Hoping it’ll help boost ratings? Share your thoughts below!

Sources: Slashfilm, Geek Tyrant