Marvel fans have known that S.W.O.R.D. was going to be a major player in Phase 4 of the MCU for a while, but so far, the franchise has held out on giving us much information on the S.H.I.E.L.D.-like organization. There’ve been hints at their existence on the first few episodes of WandaVision, but the latest installment of the Disney Plus series finally reveals some concrete details, including its origins.
In this week’s outing, titled “We Interrupt This Program,” the show jumps out of Scarlet Witch’s reality for the first time as we’re properly introduced to Teyonah Parris’ “Geraldine.” We soon learn that she’s really Captain Monica Rambeau, the grown-up daughter of Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), the best friend of Carol Danvers, last seen in Captain Marvel. Maria, it turns out, went on to found S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division) herself in a bid to both watch out for extraterrestrial threats and reach out to outer space allies.
The episode also reveals a tragic personal twist for Monica. She was a victim of The Snap, dusted while visiting her mother at the hospital. When she was reconstituted five years later, she discovered that Maria had died three years prior from cancer. Displaying her forethought and belief that her daughter would eventually return, Maria put protocols in place for dusted S.W.O.R.D. agents should they ever be resurrected before her death. The new acting director of S.W.O.R.D., meanwhile, is Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg), a friend of the Rambeaus.
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, we saw Nick Fury aboard a space station alongside a workforce of Skrulls, which we took to be S.W.O.R.D. WandaVision has yet to confirm that Fury is part of the organization, but expect more answers to come as the series unfolds Fridays on Disney Plus.
