The established cast—Clark Gregg's Coulson LMD, Chloe Bennet's Daisy, Ming-Na Wen's May, Henry Simmons' Mack, Natalia Cordova-Buckley's Yo-Yo—remains unchanged from prior seasons with no swaps. Diversity functions as organic team composition built over the series run rather than forced casting alterations. An explicit subplot in episode 3 'Alien Commies from the Future!' depicts 1950s systemic racism and segregation through a white privilege interrogation joke in which Mack, Yo-Yo, and May fail due to bias while Deke succeeds.

Creator statements from Tancharoen highlight diversity and representation as core mission elements, including an 'Asian agenda' for strong Asian women leads. Academic analysis frames the time-travel structure as a deliberate DEI critique of 20th-century structural racism, yet this remains confined to subplots without becoming the premise driver, and the main narrative stays focused on alien-invasion timeline preservation without identity politics as the emotional core or any LGBTQ+ centrality.