Sim. Coulson morreu.
Joss respondeu isso no SXSW de 2014. De este artigo (ênfase minha):
Acknowledging the presence of seemingly-deceased Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) on the panel – Gregg plays Leonato in the Much Ado ensemble – Whedon tried to explain how the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent returns from the dead.
“I’ll tell you guys this, Heimlich,” Whedon joked, before effectively clamming up about the show. “I can’t talk about it,” he admitted, but said that he did bring Coulson back from the dead for the ABC drama. “Yes. For realsies.”
Dentro do programa de TV
Agente Hill diz que Coulson morreu por 8 segundos (embora ele afirme 40) e que Fury falsificou uma morte completa para unir os Vingadores. Coulson foi enviado para se recuperar no Taiti.
No entanto ...
A short exchange between Agent Hill and
Shepherd BookDr. Streiten leads viewers to believe that there is still more to Coulson's "death" and "recovery" than Coulson or the viewer knows.
Na 1ª Temporada, Episódio 3: (O Ativo)
A major point is made to demonstrate that Coulson has lost what should have been instinctive muscle memory when he is unable to take apart and reassemble a gun as quick as he normally could pre-impalement.
Na 1ª Temporada, Episódio 11: (Um Lugar Mágico)
Dr. Streitan explains that Coulson had been dead for days and that his memories had been altered. After being revived (by some still unknown means), his memories are altered to restore him to something closer to his original pre-death personality.
Dentro dos filmes
Vale a pena notar que, enquanto Coulson foi revivido, e está vivo e chutando no Universo Cinematográfico da Marvel, Whedon ainda o considera morto para os propósitos dos filmes, explicando uma troca. com / a / 86951/5184 "> porque ele não apareceu em nenhum dos filmes da MCU desde sua viagem ao TAHITI .A lot of people come back in The Winter Soldier. It’s a grand Marvel tradition. Bucky was supposed to die. And the Coulson thing was, I think, a little anomalous just because that really came from the television division, which is sort of considered to be its own subsection of the Marvel universe. As far as the fiction of the movies, Coulson is dead.
No entanto, como Whedon recuou de sua posição como uma das forças primárias da equipe criativa da MCU, The Powers That Be ™ pode mudar isso.