Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. showrunners have confirmed the identity of the creepy comic book character who will inhabit Ward’s body when the show returns.
As many fans have guessed, Ward’s body is now animated by the tentacled Marvel villain known as Hive. In the comics, Hive is an amalgam of genetically-engineered parasites originally lab-crafted by Hydra. The creature plays a role in the Secret Warriors storyline that has inspired much of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s recent developments, but Hive’s live action counterpart already diverges significantly from his comic book origin.
“Our version of Hive is going to have its own unique twist and be very different from what fans have seen so far,” Whedon and Tancharoen have told Nerdist.com. “We will see similarities that pay homage to the original character, but fans will see that Hive is taking an exciting new direction in the world of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
The Hive presented on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does have ties to Hydra (the evil organization sought this “entity” for centuries) but is tentatively identified as an Inhuman. In another convenient divergence, Hive is not presented by a mass of icky tentacles as in the comics, but exists in the recently-vacated corpse of Grant Ward. Ward’s body is looking a little the worse for wear at this point, but we think Brett Dalton can pull off the dead look very nicely.
He could maybe use a little blush, though.
Hive will presumably be the nexus of much drama when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 returns — and not just because he’s super scary. Coulson’s team went to extreme measures to keep the entity contained on Maveth, but it was Coulson’s decision to kill the unconscious Ward that allowed the creature to come through the portal. Guilt and culpability has always been an important theme in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and it looks like that’s only going to become more prominent as the season progresses.
The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. mid-season premiere, “Bouncing Back,” airs Tuesday, March 8 at 9:00 p.m. on ABC.