Kevin Feige Answers If Hydra and SHIELD Can Return in Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Despite Agents of SHIELD having wrapped up its seven-season run last year, fans of the show are still holding out hope the characters that appeared in the series could return in future properties within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The curiosity has finally reached Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, who decided to address those still wondering about the group.

During The Falcon and the Winter Soldier virtual press conference on Sunday, the mega-producer didn't shut the door on any type of SHIELD — or HYDRA, for that matter — reappearance. In fact, Feige even went the length to say the MCU will always need a shadowy, clandestine organization, saying it's entirely possible SHIELD could return at a later date in some shape, way, or form.

"Well, again, you can always look at the comics, right? We always take our lead from what has happened before, and those organizations come and go in various forms over the years," Feige said. "So, they always could [return]. There are new organizations like SWORD, that you saw in WandaVision, so there's always an inherent need for above-board or shadowy organisations of some kind in the MCU."

As Feige pointed out, SWORD was just introduced in WandaVision, and will likely have a major presence in the future of the MCU. Matt Shakman — the director of the show — recently detailed the length he and his team went to in order to build SWORD from the ground up.

"Oh, it was a super exciting opportunity to build a whole new agency," Shakman said. "We started where we start pretty much anything when we design it; we say, 'What would it be in the real world?' So, we looked at Cape Canaveral, we looked at the history of the space agencies, and what those worlds looked like and felt like. Then we worked with our production designer, Mark Worthington, and concept designers and storyboard artists, and started to build out the world of S.W.O.R.D.

"But we really wanted it to feel grounded and real, to contrast with the sitcom reality inside the hex. We looked at films that I think do that really well - movies like Arrival, for instance, and the temporary base that they built around their extraterrestrial anomaly was a great reference point for us. We imagined that S.W.O.R.D. is exactly the right agency when you have a radioactive anomaly; that they're used to going into foreign planets, very difficult terrain. So, that pop-up base that we built was based off existing radiological and biological chemical response units that are out there."

Suffice to say, SWORD's probably the go-to spy-type group for the foreseeable future.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ beginning Friday, March 19th.

What other characters do you think might pop up in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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