This weekend, I had the great pleasure of attending Wizard World Portland. While the guest list included such popular Comic Book TV actors such as William Shatner, John Barrowman, and Kristen Rytten ...the most interesting news came from Agent's of Shield's Elizabeth Henstridge, who plays Agent Gemma Simmons. When asked what actor she loves that plays characters she hates, she had this to say:
"Watching him [Dalton] play Hive is interesting. He has the memories of the people he has killed.
Well ...there you have it. After years of speculating if Ward would turn out to be a villain, and if so which one, we have verbal confirmation from one of the actor's mouth. A wikipedia search of the character Hive lines up with Henstridge's descrpiption. What follows is the abilities descritpion from wikipedia.
"As one, the Hive is capable of asserting itself as an individual, albeit without name or personality. In this form it is capable of speech -- the language; however, is unknown, though spoken also by other Hydra agents -- suggesting it is one of their own design, created for strategic secrecy when in the field."