Agents Of SHIELD: Grant Ward Is Now A Bona Fide Marvel Supervillain

As much fun as it’s been to just refer to Brett Dalton’s character as “Zombie Ward” after what happened to him during the midseason finale of Agents of SHIELD, we had a feeling that moniker wasn’t going to stick in the long run. It turns out he’s a legit supervillain now, one that some Marvel Comics readers might have encountered in print.

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You’d have to have read the Secret Warriors series by Jonathan Hickman to be familiar with the character, but Nerdist News broke the exclusive news that Ward is now the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the supervillain Hive. In the comics, Hive was a tentacled sort that kind of resembled Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

He was also a parasitic entity created by Hyrda to be a literal embodiment of the whole “cut one head off …” philosophy. It could fire its tentacle-like parasites at people, breathe on land or underwater and speak a special Hydra language that only its members could understand.

Don’t expect the Ward version of Hive to be exactly the same, particularly since he’s of Inhuman origins. Agents of SHIELD showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen told Nerdist they will salute the original while throwing in some new aspects as well.

"We will see some similarities that pay homage to the original character, but fans will see that Hive is taking an exciting new direction in the world of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD."

You can see the entire segment of Nerdist News, hosted by Jessica Chobot, right here.

So now Ward is literally slimy. Seems appropriate.

Agents of SHIELD returns with new episodes on Tuesday, March 8.

(via Comic Book Resources)