Will Ward Return To Agents Of SHIELD?

The latest season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD threw its fans for a loop in the last leg of episodes when the team was trapped within the artificial reality of the Framework.

A mix of technology and magic, this reality flipped many dynamics from the Marvel Cinematic Universe making it so Hydra was the domineering force and not SHIELD. But it also resulted in a lot of familiar faces returning to the mix, such as departed friend-turned-enemy Grant Ward.

The way Aida returned seemed to leave an option open for some of these dead characters to come back into the fold, including Ward who was much more altruistic as a Framework incarnation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be in the cards according to SHIELD EP Jed Whedon.

The producers considered bringing other people back, Whedon told EW, but because of “scheduling, or personal issues, or other shows that take our people away,” it didn’t work out.

EP jeff bell added an in-story reason why it wouldn’t work for the team, mentioning the Darkhold magic that comprised Aida’s physical body.

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“Aida rebuilt her body out of dark stuff from a dark, terrible universe, so she wasn’t exactly human,” Bell said. “There was a Darkhold filter through which she came, so it seemed that anyone who came back that way was not, in fact, really themselves, but some corrupted version of themselves.”

So even if Ward did make it back, he’d probably be inclined to become that corrupted bad guy that fans loved to hate for the first three seasons.

Hopefully Brett Dalton still manages to make his way to the small screen for another appearance or cameo, because his involvement in the last run of episodes was a fun treat for longterm fans of the series.


Agents of SHIELD Season 4 is currently being cooked up in the writers room. The show is slated to return to ABC early in 2018, after Marvel’s The Inhumans wraps up its first 8-episode season.

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