What is Agent Coulson's status as of the end of Endgame?

Question

This certainly may seem like a duplicate of

Why aren't MCU movies featuring Coulson after Avengers?

However that question is more general and all the answers are from the Avengers: Age of Ultron timeframe and are focused on the idea of 'appearance in film'

I haven't watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it seems like, given the all encompassing cast of Endgame, that at least a cameo or an appearance at

Tony Stark's funeral

would be in order. Unless there's a simple in-universe explanation.

What is Agent Coulson's status as of the end of Endgame?

This does not necessarily have to do with whether he appears on-screen. It is just that the events of Endgame make his absence all the more conspicuous.

Answer 1

The events of season 5 of Agents of SHIELD prevent Coulson from taking part in anything that happens during Endgame.

TL;DR: Coulson is (finally! again!) dead in the MCU, before Endgame takes place. He was also no longer SHIELD Director by this point, and SHIELD is effectively (again!) defunct, so wouldn't be much use in the battle.

An important subplot of season 5, particularly the latter half, is that Coulson

is dying, and in order to prevent the future the team travelled to, they may need to let him die.

In the final episode of the season, The End, Simmons gives Coulson some of the Centipede serum, which was established early in the series as a (flawed) super-soldier type drug. For Coulson, this is

a cure (although possibly temporary), but

he hides it and gives it to Daisy (Skye).

(Daisy needs it for the super-strength, not as a cure).

At the very end of the episode, we see Coulson and May in Tahiti,

where Coulson is content to spend his last days in peace. It is established that he has only a very short time left.

Season 6 of SHIELD has Clark Gregg playing a different (as far as we currently know) character, Sarge, who happens to look exactly like Coulson. It's not clear yet, but presumably Sarge has no reason to fight in the Endgame battle, or to

attend Tony's funeral.

Given that both Season 5 and Endgame are time-travel stories, it's tricky to place everything, but episode 20 takes place at the same time as Infinity War, as there's an explicit comment that Thanos is attacking the Earth right then. Episodes 21 and 22 follow on directly from episode 20, and are before the

first

'snap', and certainly well before the latter events of Endgame.

(I haven't seen Season 6 yet, but I understand it's set a year after Season 5, which should put it between Infinity War and Endgame, but I understand that because of scheduling uncertainty they couldn't reference anything that happens in Endgame, so I'm unclear how the 'snaps' link into the show. However, I don't think that impacts Coulson's status).

Answer 2

We don't currently know (as of the beginning of Season 6), as Agents of SHIELD is now running 4 years behind the MCU Prime-timeline.

Signs point to "still dead in the MCU movie-verse".

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While the end of Season 5 of Agents of SHIELD coincided with the events of Infinity War, it also featured the retirement and impending death of Coulson. Season 6 picks up one year later, with Agent Melinda May saying that Coulson died between seasons - not a casualty of the Snap.

While actor Clark Gregg is still active on the show, it is as a new, separate character named Sarge. To date, there has been no indication that Coulson will be revived.

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Avengers Endgame jumps 5 years ahead, and did feature the un-snapping of many characters, but only characters who had been snapped out of existence were restored. Since Coulson was dead the last we heard, was not restored by the un-snap, and was not at the funeral, it stands to reason that he is still dead.

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n.b.: Agents of SHIELD season 6 deliberately avoided crossing over with Avengers Endgame