"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." has cleaned up Thor's messes, had its entire premise destroyed by Captain America and helped the Avengers retrieve Loki's scepter. The Marvel TV series has performed its service to connect the Marvel Cinematic Universe in ways big and small, and it may have a head start on the next crossover with "Captain America: Civil War."
The back half of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." season three will confront the divide over how to handle the growing Inhumans population in a storyline that may parallel the establishment of a system to regulate Avengers activities. Clark Gregg already sees the connection between his ABC show and the upcoming Marvel flick.
The first half of this season "set up... the beginning of Secret Warriors, and some stuff that miiiight connect with 'Civil War' - although I don't know that!" Gregg told TVLine. "But with the Inhuman outbreak, you have people with powers suddenly all over the place. And there are those who feel that people who evolve differently need to be eradicated. And there are those who remember that those people are also humans. And there are divisions among those people."
The S.H.I.E.L.D. team will have to defend its Secret Warriors against the groups that have a more extreme ideology about how to handle the Inhuman issue, according to the synopsis for episode "Bouncing Back." Daisy (Chloe Bennet) and Mack (Henry Simmons) will work overtime to find more Inhumans to build their team whose mission is to train and protect powered people, but the rising stakes will bring some members of S.H.I.E.L.D. closer together and drive others apart.
The greatest Inhuman threat for the public and S.H.I.E.L.D. is the Inhuman-possessed Grant Ward (Brett Dalton). He has returned to Hydra but is no longer the same villainous traitor that S.H.I.E.L.D. once knew. His motivations, goals and strengths are unclear, and he possesses the memories of the Inhuman monster's former hosts.
"The idea with this new iteration is that it's a collection of a lot of different memories of all the different hosts that have come before Ward. So, of course, there's still some Ward there, but it's 'Ward and' rather than 'Ward but.' It's kind of 'Ward and Will' and Ward and the Host Before Will,'" Dalton explained to TV Insider about his character's new identity.
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." returns on Tuesday, March 8 at 9 p.m. on ABC. "Captain America: Civil War" hits theaters on May 6.
