The post-credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War was a hugely significant one as it teased the incoming arrival of Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, with Nick Fury using a souped-up pager to contact Carol Danvers just before he turned to dust. What we didn’t know until now, though, is that it also set up another major element of the MCU’s future: Fury’s new alien-busting organization, S.W.O.R.D.
As originally shared on the r/marvelstudios subreddit, this image gives us a much clearer look at the pager than we saw on screen and the unpainted prop reveals the insignias of the organizations that built it. The first one is the familiar S.H.I.E.L.D. logo but underneath that is another crest with a sword at its center. To the right, meanwhile, is a breakdown of the S.W.O.R.D. acronym – Sentient World Observation Response Department.
This may now count as the first reference to S.W.O.R.D. in the MCU. In fact, we’re still waiting for the department to be outright named, though we clearly got a glimpse at Nick Fury’s new base in outer space in Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s post-credits scene. The first name-check of the organization will likely come in WandaVision, which we know will feature them prominently. The grown-up Monica Rambeau will be one of their agents and we expect them to go on to have a major presence in the franchise after that.
Here’s the thing, though: S.W.O.R.D.’s insignia on this pager heavily suggests that they’ve been around since the 1990s. This is a bit of a surprise, as we’d assumed that Fury founded the agency to replace S.H.I.E.L.D. after its fall in 2014. It actually looks to be a separate, if linked, entity, however, which Fury took control of once his position as S.H.I.E.L.D. director was made obsolete.
It looks like we’ve got a lot to learn about S.W.O.R.D., then, but this Avengers: Infinity War prop has certainly helped open our eyes a little.