Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is heading to space for its fifth season, but could it be introducing an entirely new organization to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the process?
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Marvel Television and ABC released the first official poster for Agents of SHIELD‘s fifth season today and confirmed that the show will be heading to outer space.
Here’s the Tweet, reading “This season, Marvel’s #AgentsofSHIELD will be out of this world…far out of this world.”
This season, Marvel’s #AgentsofSHIELD will be out of this world…far out of this world. pic.twitter.com/CEaHm2rlQh
โ Agents of SHIELD (@AgentsofSHIELD) September 26, 2017
While the poster above shows the SHIELD insignia apparently on the outer hull of a spaceship, it’s worth noting that the Marvel Universe already has an organization tasked with protecting Earth from cosmic threats.
That organization is the Sentient World Observation and Report Division, or SWORD. Where SHIELD is responsible for monitoring and dealing with threats planetside, SWORD is responsible for keeping an eye out for threats from anywhere else in the galaxy.
The theory is that the mysterious agents who put Coulson and his team into stasis at the end of the previous season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD could be members of SWORD sent to bring Coulson’s group into the fold.
When this theory was considered previously, it felt like there was some connective tissue missing, but the news that Nick Blood will return as Lance Hunter in Agents of SHIELD Season 5 may help fill that gap.
The last time Lance Hunter was on Agents of SHIELD, he and ex-wife Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse (Adrianne Palicki) found themselves in a jam and the only way out was the get out of the espionage business entirely. They received a “spy’s goodbye” from their SHIELD teammates and that was supposedly the end of the road for them.
The Lance Hunter Connection
In reality, a pilot for a spinoff series focusing on Hunter and Morse was filmed. The series, titled Marvel’s Most Wanted, was not picked up, leaving fans to wonder what had happened to the duo.
While Morse’s future remains unclear for now (Palicki is currently starring Fox’s The Orville), it could turn out that Hunter got out of the spy game on Earth only to be recruiting for cosmic missions by SHIELD.
Hunter’s knowledge of Coulson and SHIELD could be what leads SWORD to seek out Coulson and his team, especially if they’veย encountered some kind of crisis involving the Kree, an alien race that Coulsonย and his team have some experience dealing with.
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Infinity War
There’s another reason why now might be the right time to introduce SWORD into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that is Avengers: Infinity War is on the horizon.
Thanos’ Black Order paying a visit to Earth would seem like the opportune time for a cosmic defense organization, one possibly formed in the wake of Loki’s assault on Manhattan in Marvel’s The Avengers, to reveal itself.
This would provide an easy way for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD to tie into the events of Avengers: Infinity War, much in the same way that it previously led into the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It should also be noted that Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD will be airing its 100thย episode in its fifth season. What better way to celebrate than with a tie into the Avengers’ biggest battle yet?
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The X-Men Problem
There is one possible problem with this theory, and that’sย Marvel Studios and Marvel Television may not be at liberty to use SWORD on screen.
The organization debuted in the comic bookย Astonishing X-Men and the SWORD spinoff series featured the X-Man Beast and was published in trade paperback form under the title X-Men: SWORD, which may mean that the rights to SWORD rest with 20th Century Fox.
That said, Fox and Marvel Studios have gotten in the habit of making trades lately, and Fox Television and Marvel Television seem to have an even closer relationship with the launch of the first live-action X-Men television series Legion and the upcoming debut of the second, The Gifted, so it is possible that, even if this was once an issue, it has already been resolved.
Fans will find out when Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns to ABC this winter.