SPOILER WARNING: Major spoilers follow for tonight's season finale of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
For the second time this season, Brett Dalton's character on "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." faced death. This time, unlike when he portrayed Grant Ward and was reborn as Hive, there's no coming back. In an attempt to stop Lincoln from foiling his plan, Hive followed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent into the Quinjet, which was loaded with Holden Radcliffe's mutagenic Terrigen. However, by the time he and Lincoln had launched, Lincoln had jammed the controls. The two rocketed into the stratosphere, nuclear warhead and all, and met their end when the weapon exploded harmlessly in space.
"Agents of SHIELD" Reveals the Identity of the Fallen Agent
Dalton spoke to CBR news about his final moments on the show as well as his hope that some fan power will bring him back -- eventually. He also discussed what those last few moments could mean for the future of the show and more.
CBR News: You died -- again?!
Brett Dalton: Hah, yup. Yeah. And hopefully, we'll be having the same conversation in Season Four, and you'll ask me that same question.
What was your reaction to the script for the episode?
Well, I die in it! I mean, it's the first thing that comes up. I didn't love it, because I die in it.
In execution, Ward's death and Hive's death were very different. Which one was more difficult for you to film?
That's a good question! Probably Hive's, and that was because it also coincides with -- as far as I can tell -- the end of Brett Dalton on the show, which is quite sad. I hope that's not the case! The tag is ambiguous; who knows! We are introducing some things onto our show, so there's a lot of open doors still.
I knew I was leaving these guys behind. At least with Episode 10, when Coulson kills me on Maveth, we still had twelve episodes to shoot. Yeah, it was sad -- of course I was sorry to say goodbye to Ward -- but I was still on the show, and I had a whole new opportunity to play a completely different character, so that's cool. That was absolutely a silver lining. This was super sad, because it wasn't the end of one thing and the beginning of something else. It was like, no, this is the end of many things. It's sad because of that, so it was difficult to do.
Also, the actual filming of it was really weird and awkward. We were attached to harnesses, hanging from the ceiling and kind of floating around in space. It was very easy to be aware of how silly it felt to do that. I think the end result is awesome; I'm very happy about it, but I was glad Luke [Mitchell] was there with me and we could both keep each other in the scene, because otherwise we would have just dissolved into laughter. It's just so silly to be hooked up to the ceiling and floating in space! So it was hard to do that, then something so serious as the last scene.
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At the end of the episode, we see Holden Radcliffe working on LMD technology. As I'm sure you're aware, LMDs -- or Life Model Decoys, as it were -- are incredibly lifelike robots. Any chance we could see Grant Ward LMD in the future?
Hey, you heard it here first at Comic Book Resources! [Laughs]
I don't know! That's always a possibility. That's all I'm going to say. Not that that's true, because -- so far as I know -- I haven't gotten any cell phone messages telling me that. But that's always a possibility. I think the writers do such a good job of keeping these doors open, and you know, I'm not the only person who died on the show. Luke also died on the show. B.J. [Britt]'s character! Powers Boothe! Bill Paxton!
This technology they introduced, what that means -- we're going to have to tune into Season Four to see how that comes about. But whenever there's technology, it can be used for good, it can be used for bad, it can be used by S.H.I.E.L.D., it can be used by Hydra. Who knows who's going to get there first and how they're going to use it? I think whatever the kick, however it turns out, it will be incredibly interesting television. I hope I'm a part of it, but either way I'll be watching.
I would just like to take this final opportunity to say that, if fans are watching this and do want me to still be alive, they can start tagging #HiveLives or #HiveSurvives. That's kind of how Coulson got his TV show in the first place, so you never know!
Stay tuned to CBR News for more on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."