When we last saw the traitorous ex-Agent of SHIELD Grant Ward, he wasn’t just Grant Ward. He’d been hijacked by an alien entity known as the Beast, but it turns out that the transformation has also made him a (semi-)major Marvel supervillain. Spoilers!
At the Wizard World Portland con this weekend, Actress Elizabeth (“Simmons”) Henstridge accidentally let it slip that Ward is now Hive, a Hydra-created monster that debuted in 2009’s Secret Warriors comic. This isn’t exactly a huge surprise, since this entire season of AoS has been somewhat based on the series, but it’s always cool when the show manages to work new Marvel heroes and villains into it.
Hive of the comic differs a bit from Hive on the show, however. The comic version was a Hydra-created pile of genetically altered parasites that takes over a host, absorbs the memories and skills of those it kills, and remains completely loyal to Hydra. On the show, again, Hive is an alien parasite — albeit one that Hydra has been trying to bring to Earth for decades. We don’t know how much (if any) Ward survives inside the creature in charge of his meat suit, or how interested he is in going along with Hydra’s plans. But Henstridge confirmed that TV Hive will have the same memory-absorption powers.
Plus, seeing as though all the Agents of SHIELD Hive has met have tried to strand Ward on his barren blue planet and/or destroy him, I sincerely doubt Coulson and his team have seen the last of Ward’s body, no matter who’s running the show in there.