Hayley Atwell hasn’t given up on Agent Carter, even long after the TV show’s cancellation. Even after she got cast in the lead in her upcoming TV series Conviction, Atwell still hoped that ABC would renew Agent Carter for a third season. ABC even confirmed to her back then that they would have found a way to let her do both shows at once, if need be.
Atwell explained to CBR, “So when this [Conviction] pilot came about, ABC said, ‘Well, this is not where we’re cancelling Agent Carter. This is a great new project. We really want you in the center of it. We want to see if it’s going to go.’ And then, there were talks of, ‘Do we do an Agent Carter special? Does [Conviction] not get picked up, and Agent Carter does? Does the opposite happen? Does neither of them happen? Will I be completely, like, jobless come summer?’ All of that was a possibility, and you can only really focus on what’s right in front of you.”
Luckily for Atwell, she didn’t end up “completely jobless,” since Conviction is going on ahead–but sadly, Agent Carter did not get picked up after all. Atwell still has faith that she might wear Peggy’s mantle once more, though: “I don’t feel like I’ve said goodbye to her. She does still seem to live on a lot for the fans. And Marvel is still such a big part of my career, especially my professional family, that I would absolutely not rule out the idea of going back to Peggy at some point, seeing her in other avenues. I love her, and I hope that she has a life elsewhere at another time.”
Specifically, Atwell thinks that Peg should have another chance on the silver screen–which makes sense, since that’s where her story started out. Atwell’s been pestering Marvel higher-ups about it for quite some time: “I hound [Marvel Studios co-president Louis] D’Esposito on a regular basis, saying, ‘Give me a movie!’ I think the great thing about Peggy is, we know from Winter Soldier that she lives a long life, so she can come back. I’m banking on, when I’m in my fifties, I’m like, ‘This is the time. Let’s see what Peggy’s up to in this decade.'”
We already saw a glimpse at that possibility once before, with a middle-aged Peggy Carter (played by Atwell in old-age makeup) making a brief cameo at the very beginning of Ant-Man. We also know from the rest of the Marvel universe that Peggy Carter has a lengthy and valuable career, meeting many superheroes and making her own mark in the process.
It’s already been so fun to see her hanging out with pre-robotic Jarvis and Tony Stark’s dad on Agent Carter, and it’s a shame to think that we’d never get to see the rest of Peggy’s career play out, in between when Agent Carter‘s second season ended and her brief appearances in Ant-Man and Winter Soldier. If we ever got an Ant-Man prequel about Janet van Dyne, for example, that would be a great opportunity for Peggy as well, potentially.
I know we’re all excited for Captain Marvel, and that many have continued to push for a Black Widow movie. However, it would also be cool to see Marvel give us an older woman action heroine, so it’s good to hear that Hayley Atwell isn’t planning to give up on this idea even when she’s “in [her] fifties.” Maybe by then, her value will be recognized at last.
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