At the end of the midseason finale of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., fans learned that Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) came back from the other world as someone else or, perhaps, something else.
Now, there's an answer to who (or what) Ward is,, thanks to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress Elizabeth Henstridge, who portrays Agent Simmons on the series.
Please note that the following contains spoilers for season three of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
So who is Grant Ward now? While answering a question at Wizard World Portland (as reported by ComicBook.com), Henstridge gave the answer away while speaking about the series: "... and now Ward is Hive and takes on the memories of people he's killed, so that's going to have some interesting situations."
So Ward is now Hive, or rather he's a host for the collective mind of a group of powerful parasites. In the comic books, Hive began as a Hydra genetic experiment, but on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hive, who is now Ward and vice versa, seems a lot like another Inhuman.
In Marvel Comics, there wasn't a lot of information given about Hive, except that he belonged to Hydra and was an enemy of Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. The Hive was a former unnamed Hydra agent who that organization left in a room of parasitic pods to become a human and parasite hybrid creature with powers to control the parasites as well as give them a group consciousness.
The comic book version of the character also has powers that allow him to use the parasites to infect others' bodies so that he can control them to do his bidding. He can also shoot parasites from his limbs and has unnatural strength.
Of course, the television version of the character may prove different, although Ward is already a Hydra agent and a general all-around bad guy. Now, though, he's now something even more evil.
"This is a new version of Ward," said Dalton to Entertainment Weekly. "The Ward that we know and love is not there anymore. He's going to be a little different. He's inhabited by another creature which has existed for centuries on this other world called Maveth. There have been monuments that have been built in his honor. He has access to all of the thoughts and memories that Ward had."
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns at 8 p.m. EST March 8 on ABC.
