Are The Brood In ‘Agents Of SHIELD’ Season 5?

Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson and the rest of the SHIELD team are headed to outer space for the fifth season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, and they may be going up against some of the Marvel Universe’s least friendly inhabitants.

During last night’s season finale of Marvel’s Inhumans, ABC aired the first teaser for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Season Five. The new season finds Coulson’s team in outer space, fighting for survival against what appears to be a vicious alien species.

When Marvel fans think of vicious alien species, one alien race usually comes to mind above all others: the Brood.

The Brood was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #155 in 1982. The Brood is an insect-like alien species. They are also parasitic. Instead of growing their own bodies, they infect the bodies of others and gradually take over the host, transforming them into Brood who inherit some of the attributes and special powers of their host.

While the alien seen in the Agents of SHIELD Season Five trailer is not an exact match to Cockrum’s design for the alien species, it seems similar enough to believe that it could be a Hollywood adaptation of the alien creatures. Additionally, there are references in the trailer to Alien movies in the trailer, which could be a reference to the Brood since Claremont has been pretty open about the Xenomorph from the original Alien movie as an inspiration for the Brood.

There is another possible reason why these creatures couldn’t be Brood. Since the alien species first appeared in Uncanny X-Men and have primarily fought the X-Men rather than other Marvel heroes, it stands to reason that the Brood would be one of the many cosmic species included in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men and Fantastic Four license. On the other hand, there have been some trades made between Fox and Marvel, including the rights to use the Watchers and Ego the Living Planet, so it is possible that the Brood may be another of the characters that Marvel has regained the rights to.

On the other hand, there are plenty of other possible aliens that Agents of SHIELD could use as inspiration, such as the Sidri or the Dire Wraiths. Fans will find out when Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns to ABC on December 2, 2017.