SWORD made its MCU debut in WandaVision as the world's newest global protection agency, serving a similar purpose to SHIELD of protecting the planet from the most bizarre of threats. While the reality-bending sitcom series focussed on the ground operations of the organization, future projects will take SWORD to the stars, such as Secret Invasion as Nick Fury interacts with the Skrulls.
With SHIELD seemingly out of the picture, for now, fans will have to settle for SWORD as their government-sanctioned organization, that will likely interact with the Avengers on a fairly regular basis.
Just like SHIELD had buildings like the Triskelion to control their operations from, the newest agency needed their own earthbound headquarters going into WandaVision. A concept artist — who previously revealed alternate designs for Vision's corpse room in the base — has revealed several new images of the design process, revealing some very different designs to what the series eventually included.
NEW LOOKS AT EARLY SWORD HQ DESIGNS
WandaVision concept artist Matt Tkocz has revealed new looks at the design process of the series' debut of the SWORD headquarters on Reddit. All around, the art showcases some much more unique sci-fi designs than what was inevitably shown in the finished product, which stuck to a relatively realistic approach.
One of Tkocz's concepts went for a rather on the nose approach with the base through a design literally shaped like a sword.
Meanwhile, other attempts took a much more sci-fi-inspired approach, such as a round design with bright yellow lights, vaguely resembling a spaceship.
It's clear Tkocz played with some rather creatively shaped designs during the process that took a large variety of shapes and sizes.
Historically in Marvel Comics, SWORD is known as the agency that protects the world from extra-terrestrial threats. This theme is conveyed through several other designs, such as one that includes multiple spherical buildings, likely designed to resemble planets.
Looking at the variety in these designs, Marvel Studios likely gave Tkocz a lot of creative freedom to concept the base's design. Several of the designs encompass only one main building, while others are spread across a multitude of structures.
Of the many designs, only one could be said to have a more traditional style with a unique polygonal shape that shows a more realistic design that fans could believe to exist in the real world.
In the end, the studio opted that the believable route was the best fit for WandaVision's mysterious global agency.
The final base design shown in the concept art bears a much closer resemblance to the final design that debuted in the series' fourth episode with water surrounding the main buildings.
The concept artist went on to show some early designs for the building's internal design. The initial plan was seemingly to have the SWORD headquarters' lobby be a much more open, dome-shaped area to fill with employees.
The dome would've included a unique design on the roof with the large open-area having the giant SWORD logo structure at its center.
Much like was previously shown with the external building, Tkocz eventually landed on the final design that was visited by Wanda, Hayward, and Monica at various points throughout the series.
However, the artist also revealed a much simpler look at this final design with a sketched-out plan that led to the creation of the finished product.
The final base design shown in the concept art bears a much closer resemblance to the final design that debuted in the series' fourth episode with water surrounding the main buildings, as shown below:
THE FUTURE OF SWORD IN THE MCU
Throughout SHIELD's tenure in the Marvel universe, they were shown to have numerous bases and headquarters in different parts of the world. It's likely the fairly generic base that was shown in WandaVision will never show up again, particularly as the organization will largely focus on intergalactic missions.
Nick Fury's division of SWORD will be the focal point of Secret Invasion as the Skrulls shape-shift themselves into human life. The series will seemingly connect to Captain Marvel 2 making it likely the agency will make an appearance there too.
Kevin Feige has made clear the door isn't closed on groups like SHIELD and HYDRA popping up again in the MCU future, but for now it appears SWORD is all the world has.
