Donnie Gill (portrayed by Dylan Minnette) was a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in two episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He was a former student at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science & Technology, gifted in mechanical science and engineering. Following a debacle with a weather control device he had designed, Donnie gained the superhuman ability to freeze anything with a touch. This in turn would make him a target of HYDRA who wished to exploit his powers to further their plans.
Donnie Gill is based of a Marvel Comics supervillain of the same name who went by the alias "Blizzard" due to his ability to generate and project intense cold. While Blizzard's powers are part of his biology in the MCU, his comic book counterpart gained his powers from a hi-tech battlesuit.
History[]
Season 1[]
In the Season 1 episode "Seeds", Donnie and his friend and fellow student Seth Dormer had developed a device capable of controlling weather. The device only had a short radius of operation and the two lacked the resources to increase the freezing device's functionality, but Seth reached out to the criminal tycoon Ian Quinn to procure funding and materials. In a test of their machine, Seth and Donnie froze the campus swimming pool while they and their friends were swimming, making it seem as though the incident was a potentially lethal prank.
Agents Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons were summoned to the Academy to be consulted in the investigation as the device was based on one of their early designs. While they were giving a talk about potential to calm down the cadets, Agent Grant Ward questioned Seth as the victim of the attack, who pointed Donnie as a suspect as he was the only cadet he did not consider his friend due to Gill's lack of social abilities.
After Fitz helped Gill resolving a problem with a power source, unaware of Gill's true intentions, Simmons and the rest of the team discovered that Dormer and Gill had staged the attack themselves, and wanted Fitz's help with the power issue to make a bigger version of their freezing device. When Fitz returned to Gill's room, Dormer knocked him unconscious with an ionized air cannon, and the two headed for their rendezvous with Quinn. The tycoon, however, wanted the whole process completed without S.H.I.E.L.D.'s knowledge, and said he was pulling out.
To try to salvage their disastrous situation, Dormer promised an immediate, awe-inspiring demonstration. Quinn agreed, but then turned back anyway, leaving the area around the Academy in the grip of a super-storm unleashed by the impact of Gill's untested machine on the local weather.
When he grasped how dangerous it had become, Gill attempted to shut the experiment down, and he finally persuaded Dormer to help. However, a sudden lightning strike occurred which not only destroyed the machine, but killed Dormer as well. Coulson's team arrived to try and revive Dormer, but they were unable to resuscitate him. Donnie survived and was taken into custody, though S.H.I.E.L.D. still saw potential in Donnie and, rather than squander his intellect by jailing him, transferred him to their Sandbox facility where he could aid in their research projects. What Coulson's team didn't notice was that when Donnie's machine was destroyed, the lightning bolt had transmitted the freezing elements of the device to Donnie's cells, granting him the ability to manipulate ice and freeze objects by touching them.
Season 2[]
During his time at the Sandbox, Donnie was trained how to use his freezing powers effectively. However, HYDRA would soon reemerge from within S.H.I.E.L.D. and they brainwashed Donnie into their service, using him to capture the Sandbox. At some point, through unknown means, Donnie was able to break free of HYDRA's programming. He fled to Morocco where he tried to start a new life, but his past would soon catch up to him as both HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. were searching for him.
During the episode "Making Friends and Influencing People", Donnie found the Maribel del Mar, a cargo ship privately owned by HYDRA. He froze the area around the ship, rendering it immobile, then boarded the vessel and used his freezing power to kill all of the crew in order to send a message to HYDRA that they weren't taking him back. Seeing that Donnie would not respond or listen to any normal HYDRA agent, Gill's former trainer Sunil Bakshi choose to instead send Jemma Simmons and a HYDRA team to bring him back or put him down if he failed to comply. At the same time S.H.I.E.L.D. was on their way via the Bus to attempt to bring him back or keep HYDRA away. When Gill saw Simmons he was relieved at first but then realized that she was now working for HYDRA, although she attempted to win over his trust by talking about Leo Fitz and their relationship to science. Simmons began to say Gill's trigger phrase to regain control of his mind, however they were interrupted by a gunshot. Realizing that Simmons was attempting to control him, Gill tried and failed to kill her, only managing to freeze her jacket before chasing after her.
Fate[]
As Donnie chased Simmons through the ship's corridors, he ran straight into the HYDRA team led by Sunil Bakshi. Donnie was frozen in fear for a moment and Bakshi used his chance to successfully activate Donnie's trigger allowing HYDRA to take control of him. Donnie was then ordered to cover HYDRA's escape and stop the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, as they stepped outside he froze the door to ensure the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could not get through.
As the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents continued to chase down the HYDRA team, Bakshi then ordered Donnie to freeze the entire ship, in order to kill all remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents onboard. Gill placed his hands on the side of the ship and began to freeze the ship. However before he could complete his task, he was then shot in the chest by Skye with a sniper rifle and fell into the ocean. His body began to freeze itself as it fell deeper into the abyss. His body was never found and his death cannot be confirmed.