EXCLUSIVE: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Blood Talks S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Civil War

Nick Blood’s character of Lance Hunter was a new addition to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Season 2 of the series. As Bobbi Morse’s mercenary ex-husband, who found himself without a team after Absorbing Man killed his partners, Hunter has managed to find a place for himself with Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Now, with Bobbi and Mack’s true allegiance revealed, Hunter finds himself unexpectedly at the center of an S.H.I.E.L.D. civil war, with Coulson on one side and Bobbi on the other.

Now that Hunter has officially signed on to Coulson’s cause, Nick Blood found some time to talk to ComicBook.com about how his character as grown over the season, where his loyalties like, and the battles to look forward to in the remainder of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s second season.

So you mostly fought Hydra during the first half of the season, but now you’re going up against other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Do you as an actor find you enjoy pounding on one more than the other, or is all the same to you?

[Laughs] Well, I didn’t enjoy getting taken out by Mack too much, because Henry [Simmons] is a big guy and he doesn’t hold back. After a couple of takes I was just like, “Yeah, um, could you go a little bit easy?” as he was choke-holding me.

But it’s fun changing up the dynamics again, you know? I think you can feel the energy as everything flips on its head.

In last week’s post-credits scene, we see Lance join up with Coulson and kind of declare his allegiance. What do you think motivates him to stay on Coulson’s side, especially with Bobbi on the other side?

Well, I think he feels massively betrayed by Bobbi and by Mack, and they’re the people that he trusted the most on the team. So I think it’s all up in the air for him, and in Coulson he sees someone who stuck to his principals, and hasn’t wavered, and believes in what he’s doing, and I think  that Hunter needs a bit of that right now, some of that integrity that he feels Mack and Bobbi are lacking. Also, I think he sees Coulson as probably the way that he can get to the truth, because I don’t think that trusts any of the S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0 guys. Coulson seems the most determined to resist them, so Hunter sees that as a way to get to the truth of the matter and, not necessarily vengeance, but defiance of what Bobbi and Mack are involved in.

Do you think he still has some doubts about it, or that Bobbi might still be able to talk him into joining the other side?

I think he’s pretty determined, he wouldn’t cross over, but at the same time, Bobbi’s always been able to have that power over him. It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out, but I think he’s very determined to stay apart from S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0.

Apart from your character, when you look at this situation, who do you think has the more legitimate claim to being the real S.H.I.E.L.D.? Whose cause here is more righteous?

That’s a very good question. It’s hard not to like and trust Coulson, and what Clark [Gregg] brings to the character is that everyone wants to back him, everyone wants him to succeed and win.

I think, from Hunter’s perspective, he’s not as clued up on the S.H.I.E.L.D. politics as everyone else. He doesn’t’ involve himself in that as much.

I think what the writers and everyone has done really well is they’ve given us a real dynamic, and the audience as well. The audience obviously identifies with S.H.I.E.L.D., and backs S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cause, and all of a sudden they’re being told that, well, that’s maybe not the real S.H.I.E.L.D.

It’s a tricky one. I think that maybe we don’t know enough about the intentions of this new S.H.I.E.L.D. to really make a judgment. And you see Hunter say, in that scene where they first get revealed, he starts to see their point as far as Coulson is concerned, because he has been reckless and he as, he’ll admit himself, that he’s perhaps been too loyal and too emotionally involved with Skye and that’s caused problems.

It’s a difficult question. Hopefully the audience is struggling with that as well. That’s certainly the intention from our writers.

Lance started off the season as Coulson’s hired help, not even a full member of the team, and now all of a sudden the fate of S.H.I.E.L.D. rests largely on his shoulders. Has that had an effect on you and how you play the character?

Well, I think that you see Hunter start to take things a bit more seriously. I mean, sure, a sarcastic quip is never too far away, but you do see things get a bit darker, and get a bit more serious, and everything starts to matter a bit more to him.

I think the Hunter of the first episode would have jumped ship pretty quickly when all of this started kicking off, but he’s, despite himself, become attached to these people. Whether he’d admit it or not, I think he cares about them a lot and feels part of the group, so yeah, I think he’s just starting to be a bit more honest about himself.

Check back after tonight’s epsiode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the second half of interview with Nick Blood, where he answers some questions about “Afterlife.”

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.