‘Agents Of SHIELD’ Season 3 Spoilers: Grant Ward Becomes HYDRA’s ‘It’ Inhuman With A Familiar New Name

Let’s get right to the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spoilers: It’s official, Marvel just confirmed Grant Ward is Hive. Hold on, there’s a catch. S.H.I.E.L.D. producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen spoke with Nerdist and revealed the new version of Hive “ is going to have its own unique twist and be very different from what fans have seen so far.”

In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. midseason finale, Phil Coulson kills Ward with his robot hand on the alien planet, Maveth. Meanwhile, Fitz thought he had killed ‘It’ after he burst the monster, who took over Astronaut Will’s body, into flames. Turns out, that’s not what happened. ‘It’ survived, reincarnated Ward, and escaped through the portal just in time. ‘It’ and Ward, now one being, are Hive. Ward hinted at his fate during the last episode,”Maveth,” when he called the alien planet “A new beginning.”

Hive, still played by Brett Dalton, is a man-made HYDRA beast originally introduced in Secret Warriors. “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 Marvel’s Agents of S.H.IE.L.D, ” the producers added. Hive has no real name in the comics. Made up of genetically engineered parasites, Hive can detach parts of his body and use them as weapons. Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma) revealed on a panel earlier this week that Ward would turn into Hive, but also gave us another spoiler. Hive will “take on the memories of people he's killed.”

In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ‘It’ embodies HYDRA’s founding principles: world domination. In fact, HYDRA’s entire existence revolves around ‘It.’ In the comics, ‘It’ was exiled to the alien planet, Maveth, by ancient inhumans. HYDRA was formed for the sole purpose of bringing the ‘It’ monster back to Earth. In the comics, Hive was built to embody everything HYDRA stands for.

Since HYDRA now has ‘It-Hive,’ they have everything they need to take over the world. It’s unclear if Hive was ‘It’ all along, or if Hive is just Grant Ward combined with ‘It.’ As if Ward wasn’t bad enough, how will S.H.I.E.L.D. cope with their new reincarnated inhuman enemy? Find out March 8 at 9 p.m. on ABC.