Love can change the mind of even the most stubborn person. Just ask Luke Mitchell, who plays the inhuman Lincoln Campbell in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“He’s in love,” Mitchell told me during the January tour of the TV Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif. “Moving forward there’s definitely some more romance.”
Lincoln’s feelings for Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), Mitchell said, are a big part of the reason he reluctantly agreed to join S.H.I.E.L.D. during the final few fall episodes of the series.
It took a long time for Lincoln, who can manipulate electrical currents in many ways, to even remotely trust S.H.I.E.L.D. after conflicts with the organization and after he was hunted by the ATCU.
Daisy helped convince him to stop running and join the team, but it won’t be all champagne and roses for the couple or their team when “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” returns at 9/8c March 8 on ABC.
“I think he’s a little bit of a wildcard. He hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid as such,” Mitchell said, adding that his allegiance is with Daisy, not necessarily with S.H.I.E.L.D. “I think he believes he’s on the right side and they are good people, but there will be a lot of conflicts, especially with … S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ideals versus his point of view.”
Mitchell also teased that some of the demons from Lincoln’s pre-Afterlife past—in the Season 3 episode “A Wanted (Inhu)man,” for example, we learned he had battled alcoholism—will “pop their heads up.”
“It’s not going to be a smooth journey,” he said.
Mitchel himself seemed to make a smooth journey from playing John Young in “The Tomorrow People” to his current role. He traded John’s powers of telepathy, teleportation and telekinesis for Lincoln’s power of electrokinesis.
When asked which powers he preferred, Mitchell was quite diplomatic.
“Look, the visuals of it are sick, yes,” he said of the electrokinesis, but adding: “Obviously in real life teleportation would come in so handy. Teleportation would be amazing.”
Calling the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” effects teams incredible, he said they often have to convince him that his arms moves to show Lincoln shooting the electrical currents will work.
“I feel like a douchebag on set, man,” he said, motioning like Lincoln. “And then I’ll see the play back. I’ll be like, ‘Oh, it really looks like I’m electrocuting someone or something.’”
“So that’s really cool,” he added. “I get to be a kid all day. It’s great.”
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