Clark Gregg is pretty pumped about his promotion: The actor who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel universe — promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the final episode of the ABC show — reminded the Comic-Con crowd Friday what a Marvel nerd he is in real life when he recalled hearing the news of his new title:

"Agent Coulson ... and Clark ... have been merging over time," Coulson said. "And both of us said, very loudly, inside my head: 'SQUEEEEEEEEEEE.'"

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Standing-O and chants of "Coulson-Coulson" for the entrance of Clark Gregg at #SDCC https://t.co/vRYpfD3V3W — Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 25, 2014

Maybe not so pumped — at least at first — about his new role on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was Brett Dalton, whose character Agent Ward was revealed to be a secret member of [redacted] near the end of Season 1. (Pssst, Hail Hydra!)

"Now I'm a bad guy? So I'm not part of the team?" said Dalton, who wore a black and red Hydra T-Shirt beneath his jacket. "But I got to work with Bill Paxton. It was quite a turn, but I've embraced it wholeheartedly. I hope there are some Hydra fans out there."

In fact, the entire cast said they reacted strongly to the news that one of their own would go turncoat.

"They brought us into a trailer after a day of shooting .. . and has us read it out loud. Which was kind of weird," said Chloe Bennett, who plays Skye, something of a love interest for Agent Ward before he went Hydra.

"Weren't you freaking out?" Ming-Na Wen, who plays Melinda May (and has more of a friends-with-benefits relationship with the handsome traitor), said to Bennett. "You were like, 'He kissed me!' And I was like 'I slept with him!'"

Marvel also confirmed that Lucy Lawless will be in Season 2, whose character will be a S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran named Isabel Hartley — and she's handy with a knife, which should please Xena: Warrior Princess fans. They added that a British newcomer named Nicholas Blood will join the cast, not an agent, but someone who helps the team.

Before the S.H.I.E.L.D. panel, Marvel brought out the showrunners and star of their upcoming Agent Carter, incuding star Hayley Atwell:

Hayley Atwell to the stage for AGENT CARTER. I would have her babies. #SDCC https://t.co/eHuqQ3PxSY — Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 25, 2014

In the biggest news of the panel, Marvel revealed that Captain America: The Winter Soldier helmers Anthony and Joe Russo will direct the third and fourth episodes of ABC's Agent Carter, and Captain America: The First Avenger's Joe Johnston will handle the fourth, Marvel announced Friday at its Comic-Con television panel.

Though her character has had very little screen-time in the Marvel movies — "In the pilot she will have equaled all of her time onscreen in the Marvel universe," noted co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely — Atwell got some great cheers from the crowd in Ballroom 20. And she already has her big fans: the first three people who asked questions of the Agent Carter panel were all dressed as the title character.

"It feels a privilege," Atwell said. "It's a very rare ooportutnity for someone like me, who's been working on stage, to be working on something of this scale, about a woman who I look up to as well. When I was a little girl there were lots of things in TV that I wanted to aspire to ... it's a huge bonus to play someone who young women will look up to as a role model."