| Peggy Carter | |
|---|---|
| Marvel Cinematic Universe character | |
 Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter inCaptain America: The First Avenger | |
| First appearance | |
| Based on | |
| Adapted by | Christopher Markus Stephen McFeely |
| Portrayed by |
|
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Margaret Elizabeth Carter |
| Nickname | Peggy |
| Species | Human |
| Title | Agent Carter |
| Occupation |
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| Affiliation |
|
| Family |
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| Spouse | Steve Rogers[a] |
| Significantothers |
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| Relatives | Sharon Carter (niece) |
| Nationality | British |
Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy"Carter, also known asAgent Carter, is afictionalcharacter in theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)media franchise portrayed byHayley Atwell, based on theMarvel Comics characterof the same name. Carter is depicted as a BritishMI6 agent and member of theStrategic Scientific Reserve who becameSteve Rogers's love interest duringWorld War II. Following the war, she became one of the founders ofS.H.I.E.L.D., eventually serving as the Director. Atwell has received critical praise for her depiction of the character.
As of 2024[update], the character has appeared in five films, as well as the short filmAgent Carter (2013), thesecond season ofAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and her own television seriesAgent Carter (2015–2016).
Alternate versions of the character, includingCaptain Carter, appear in the animated seriesWhat If...? (2021–2024) and the filmDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).What If...?'s Carter receives theSuper Soldier Serum instead of Rogers. She is recruited by TheWatcher to join theGuardians of the Multiverse.Multiverse of Madness's Captain Carter, also asupersoldier, is a member of theIlluminati from a reality calledEarth-838.[3]
Peggy Carter debuted in a single panel (at the time the character was unnamed) as a wartime love interest ofCaptain America inTales of Suspense #75 (March 1966), and then being named in #77 (May 1966). She was created by writerStan Lee and artistJack Kirby.[4][5]
Hayley Atwell was cast in the role of Peggy Carter forCaptain America: The First Avenger in April 2010.[6] Atwell expressed interest in reprising the role forAgent Carter in October 2013;[7]ABC Entertainment presidentPaul Lee confirmed her involvement in the project in January 2014.[8]
Regarding her preparation for the role, Atwell said, "I'm training at the moment six days a week to make her a bit more military and make it convincing that I could kick butt."[9] On taking up the role of Carter, Atwell said "the main reason I didCaptain America was because I wanted to get out of my own head and stop taking my work so seriously".[10]Captain America: The First Avenger screenwriterChristopher Markus said the film "takes place in the 40s, there weren't too many women in areas of authority at that point, and we wanted her to essentially be the most capable person on the screen at that time".[10]
Hayley Atwell portrays Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe filmsCaptain America: The First Avenger (2011),Agent Carter (2013),[11]Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014),[12]Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015),[13]Ant-Man (2015),[citation needed]Avengers: Endgame[14] Atwell appears in images inCaptain America: Civil War (2016).[15]
Atwell also appears in the television seriesAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s episodes "Shadows" (2014)[16] and "The Things We Bury" (2014),[citation needed] and in the television seriesAgent Carter (2015–2016).[17]
Gabriella Graves portrays a young Carter in theAgent Carter episode "Smoke & Mirrors".[18]
Atwell voices an alternate version in theWhat If...? season 2 episode "What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?". In an alternate 1988, she is responsible for bringing together the Avengers to facePeter Quill andEgo.[citation needed]
Margaret Elizabeth Carter was born inHampstead, England, on April 9, 1921, to her parents Harrison andAmanda Carter. After the death of her brotherMichael fighting inWorld War II, Carter decided to leave her then-fiancéFred Wells and joined theBritish Intelligence, and assigned as acode breaker inBletchley Park, rising quickly through the ranks, she was assigned to the Secret British Intelligence and was later reassigned as a British Liaison to theAmerican Forces fighting the Nazis, becoming a key member of theStrategic Scientific Reserve (SSR).[b]
In 1943, Carter is tasked by the SSR to help overseeProject Rebirth, a program to create an army ofsupersoldiers for theUnited States war effort. Carter joinsHoward Stark and Dr.Abraham Erskine in overseeing the program. After a series of tests on different soldiers, the sicklySteve Rogers is chosen due to his heroic character. Erskine subjects Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with aSuper Soldier Serum and dosing him with vita-rays.
After Rogers emerges from the experiment as a super soldier, an undercoverHydra agent,Heinz Kruger, kills Erskine and flees with a vial of the serum. Rogers and Carter pursue Kruger; Carter nearly kills him but Rogers saves her from being hit by his vehicle. The assassin avoids interrogation by committing suicide with acyanide capsule.
After Rogers' best friendBucky Barnes is captured by Hydra, Rogers has Carter and Howard Stark fly him behind enemy lines to mount a solo rescue attempt, which succeeds. After Rogers returns, Carter, who has developed feelings for him, catches him kissing another woman, prompting her to angrily fire bullets at Rogers'new shield. Using information extracted fromArnim Zola, the final Hydra stronghold is located, and Rogers leads an attack to stopJohann Schmidt from usingweapons of mass destruction on America's cities. Rogers and Carter kiss before he climbs aboard Schmidt's aircraft as it takes off. After Schmidt is teleported away by theTesseract,[c] Rogers, seeing no way to land the plane without the risk of detonating its weapons, radios the tearful Carter and says goodbye to her before crashing in theArctic. Stark later recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor but is unable to locate Rogers or the aircraft, presuming him dead.
In 1945, Carter and the SSR raid the last known Hydra base led byWerner Reinhardt. They confiscate many items including theObelisk anda blue body.
One year later, Carter facessexism from her boss, AgentJohn Flynn, who treats her condescendingly and keeps her compiling data and code breaking while assigning field cases to the male agents. The SSR's main concern is the mysteriousZodiac, which they have been unable to recover for some time. One night alone in the office while the men are out together, Carter answers the case line to hear of the location of the Zodiac. Though three to five agents are recommended, Carter decides to go to the location herself. Fighting off multiple guards, Carter is able to retrieve the Zodiac, a mysterious serum, herself. The next day, Flynn reprimands her for not going through the proper procedures to complete the mission, and dismisses the indignant Carter as just an "old flame" of Captain America's who was given her current job out of pity for her bereavement. However, before he can officially punish her, the case line rings again, this time with Howard Stark on the other end, who informs Flynn that Carter will co-head the newly createdS.H.I.E.L.D.
Later in 1946, Carter has to balance the routine office work she does for the SSR inNew York City with secretly assisting Howard Stark, who finds himself framed for supplying deadly weapons to enemies of the United States. Carter is assisted by Stark's butler,Edwin Jarvis, to find those responsible and dispose of the weapons.
In 1947, Carter moves from New York City toLos Angeles to deal with the threats of the newAtomic Age by theCouncil of Nine in the aftermath of World War II, gaining new friends, a new home, and starting a romance withDaniel Sousa.
Sometime later, Carter marries a man whom Steve Rogers saved from a Hydra base in World War II, and has two children with him. Carter's American nieceSharon Carter later becomes a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Meanwhile, Peggy Carter also conducts S.H.I.E.L.D. operations in collaboration with a man named "Braddock".[d]
By 1970, Carter serves as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.[e] In 1989, Carter witnesses a confrontation betweenHank Pym and Howard Stark over Stark's use of Pym Particles without Pym's knowledge, causing Pym to quit S.H.I.E.L.D.[f]
In 2014, Carter, who is now elderly, has developedAlzheimer's disease, and is living in a retirement home inWashington D.C.. Rogers visits her, having come out ofsuspended animation a few years prior. Carter notes to Rogers that the world has changed and is surprised to see him.
In 2016, Carter passes away in her sleep, and Sharon, Rogers, andSam Wilson attend her funeral.[g]
In an alternate identical-history 1970s, Director Carter is observed working at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base atCamp Lehigh,New Jersey by a time-travellingSteve Rogers.
In an alternate identical-history 1949, Carter was met byEarth 616-Steve Rogers. They got married and lived a happy life together. This claim was supported by directors Joe and Anthony Russo but has been contested by writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who claim that Steve managed to break the film's time travel rules and live on Earth-616 with Peggy, possibly even being present at her funeral alongside his younger self.[20]
In an alternate 1988, Carter, now-Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., together with Howard Stark, assembles a team composed ofBill Foster / Goliath,King T'Chaka of Wakanda,Wendy Lawson / Mar-Vell, Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier and Hank Pym / Ant-Man to stop a youngPeter Quill who returned to Earth after being reunited with his father,Ego. Carter and Stark aid the team in capturing Quill before Pym's daughter,Hope van Dyne, frees Quill. Carter later leads the attack on Ego and witness the defeat of his physical form at Quill's hands. Afterwards, Carter attends a victory party at Pym's house and joins the rest of the team in going after Ego's planetary form.
Atwell portrays Captain Carter in theDisney+ animated seriesWhat If...? in an alternate universe. In this timeline, she receives theSuper Soldier Serum and becomes a superhero named Captain Carter. In the episode "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?", she is recruited by theWatcher to join theGuardians of the Multiverse to stop an alternateUltron.[21] She returns in theseason 2 episodes "What If... Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?", "What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?", "What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?", and theseason 3 episodes "What If... The Watcher Disappeared?" and "What If... What If?".
Another version of Captain Carter appears inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. InEarth-838, Carter serves as a member of theIlluminati and is killed whenWanda Maximoff throws Carter's shield at her, cutting her in half.[22]
In an alternate 1943, when Carter chooses to stay in the main theater instead of watching from a safe distance, which leads other men present for observation doing the same. As a result, Kruger attacks Project Rebirth before it starts and shoots Rogers, leading Carter to take the Super Soldier Serum herself. Carter, after attacking a Hydra convoy and successfully retrieving the Tesseract from Hydra leader Johann Schmidt, becomes the superhero Captain Carter, equipped with a vibranium shield that has aUnion Jack style paint job. Rogers instead pilots theHydra Stomper armor made by Howard Stark and powered by the Tesseract. Carter fights alongside Rogers to help theAllied Forces win World War II. In 1945, Rogers goes missing during an attack on a Hydra train, prompting Carter to interrogate Arnim Zola to learn the location of Schmidt's castle. They find him using the Tesseract to summon an interdimensional creature from a portal which kills him. Carter sacrifices herself by entering the portal while pushing the creature back into it.
Carter lands in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s warehouse, meetingNick Fury andClint Barton, who tell her the war ended almost 70 years ago. In 2012, Carter becomes a member of theAvengers, consisting of Barton,Natasha Romanoff,Thor,Tony Stark, andHope van Dyne, and fights in theBattle of New York.
By 2014, Carter, who works for S.H.I.E.L.D., goes on a mission with Romanoff to rescue the hijacked S.H.I.E.L.D. vesselLemurian Star fromGeorges Batroc. While she duels Batroc, she is recruited bythe Watcher to form theGuardians of the Multiverse to defeatUltron, who plans to take control and destroy the entiremultiverse. She and the Guardians meetStephen Strange in a pub-like setting before being sent out to stop Ultron. The Guardians and an apocalyptic version of Romanoff fight Ultron in his and Romanoff's home universe, and Carter exposes Ultron's eye by removing part of his helmet. This allows Romanoff to inject an Arnim Zola virus, wiping out Ultron's consciousness, destroying him. Carter is then returned to her universe by the Watcher although she briefly hesitates while staring at a picture of her Steve Rogers.
Back in her universe, Carter and Romanoff subdue Batroc, and then Romanoff informs her that the Hydra Stomper has been found with someone inside. This proves to be a still alive and barely aged Steve Rogers who was believed to have perished fighting Hydra in 1953. However, Rogers attacks the two women and escapes. Fury and Romanoff admit that there have been rumors of the Hydra Stomper still being around since the 1960s, but as the world's most deadly killer and a terrorist, Rogers having been captured and brainwashed by theRed Room. Carter and Romanoff thwart an assassination attempt by Rogers on Barnes inWashington, D.C.. They take Rogers to a hideout inScotland where they discover that biotech in the Hydra Stomper has kept Rogers from aging, but it's also the only thing keeping him alive, meaning that they can't remove the suit without killing him. Awakening seemingly free of his brainwashing, Rogers leads the two women to a test site inSokovia used the Red Room and reconnects with Carter. However, the Red Room attacks and reactivates Rogers' brainwashing, revealing that his true mission had always been to capture Carter. During the battle that follows, Carter manages to help Rogers break through the brainwashing and he seemingly sacrifices himself to destroy the Red Room.
Sometime later, Carter leavesAvengers Tower and is met by Romanoff in the garage. She states her desire to find Rogers who she is convinced is still alive. Before she can leave, Carter is pulled from achaos magic portal into another universe. She is then met by Fury andScarlet Witch who state that she is the person who can save their queen and their world. Carter begins calling for the Watcher.
Stranded on Earth-1602, in the year 1602, Carter agrees to help Fury and the Scarlet Witch upon learning about an impending incursion. Sometime later, as a tear opens up, she arrives at the courtyard and savesLoki from being pulled into it. However, she is unable to save QueenHela and under the new King Thor's orders is hunted down byHappy Hogan and the Royal Yellowjackets. Carter hides out and hears the Watcher narrating. She speaks to him and he tells her she does not belong in that universe. Carter tells him she wants to be there to help them, and locates Stark. She seeks his help in retrieving Thor's scepter and he tells her about people who can help steal it. She stumbles upon Loki's carriage and findsScott Lang, Barnes, and Rogers there. She is overjoyed to meet a new Rogers and joins them at a pub, but it gets attacked by Hogan, the Yellowjackets and theDestroyer, who Carter fights off. She willingly gets taken into custody and speaks again with the Watcher, before freeing herself and freesBruce Banner, bringing out the Hulk. They meet with Stark who reveals his device and are met by Rogers, Lang, and Barnes. The group disguise themselves and enter Thor's courtroom and wait for the Hulk's signal. After he arrives, Carter confronts Thor over the Scepter and he engages in a fight with her. Once the Scarlet Witch intervenes, Carter takes the Scepter and uses the Time Stone inside on Stark's device, exposing the time-displaced person to be Rogers. She is forced to say goodbye to him and sends him back to his universe, which ends the impending incursion and returns everyone else too to their universes.
However, Carter remains left behind in the universe and returns to the pub alone, but is met suddenly by Strange.
Using his magic to provide shot glasses for them, Strange then takes her to his dimension, Sanctum Infintium. He shows her the captured "universe-killers" and asks her to help him catch one that got away. He sends her to a universe where HYDRA had won and destroyed everything. The Watcher arrives and asks her what she is doing there. After he leaves, Carter is attacked byKahhori, before the two make conversation and Carter learns that Strange lied to her. The two are then pulled through a portal back to the Sanctum and Carter learns he wants to resurrect his destroyed universe. In an effort to stall him, Carter releases all of Strange's prisoners and escapes with Kahhori. They run into a zombified Wanda Maximoff and other zombies, before another Hela,Fenris, andSurtur arrive. As they escape through the Sanctum, they are confronted byThanos, but he gets snapped away byErik Stevens. Stevens prepares to attack them, but Kahhori removes the Infinity Stone cladded armor from him and Carter puts the Stones on her armor. They reach the Forge and engage in a battle against Strange, which Carter tries reason with him but he said that his grief is too great. When he brings the captives to the Forge, Carter and Kahhori work together to save them, as Hela,Xu Wenwu, another Hulk, and another Thor throw their weapons to them. Carter fights off Strange, which, thanks to her compassion, he's been able resist to his grief, allowing to spare Carter, as he falls into the Forge and is rescued by the Watcher.
She is taken to the Nexus of All Realities and then to Strange's restored universe where they seeChristine Palmer alive. Carter tells the Watcher she wants to see the Multiverse before going home and he takes her to the end of time to see Loki and assembly of the Multiversal Tree, that resemblesYggdrasil.
Sometime later, Carter restarted the Guardians of the Multiverse and recruited Kahhori. She also metStorm and Byrdie the Duck and recruited them to the team. At some point, they were taken in by theTime Variance Authority. However, they escaped, stealing TVA reset charges andKang the Conqueror's Time Sphere. Together they tracked the Champion of Hydra down in another universe attackingXandar and arrived to helpNebula,Groot andKorg. Carter killed the creature and was thanked by Nebula before three Observational Plane shards fell from the sky. Carter realized that the Watcher must be in trouble and left with her team to investigate on their ship. Upon Kahhori's suggestion to recruit another Ultron, Carter went to another destroyed universe and asked Ultron for his help, but was captured byEminence.
Carter was held prisoner by Eminence and the other Watchers in the Fifth Dimension. Before she was killed, Ultron broke into the Dimension and freed her and Uatu. Their ship crashed through picking up Carter and the Watcher, although Ultron stayed behind to buy them time. As they traveled out of the Dimension, Carter came up with the idea of leading the Watchers to Strange Supreme's new universe where Strange's soul was in every atom of the universe, hoping that their old friend could help them once again. However, they were attacked by the Watchers before they could reach it and crashed onto a planet. The Watcher gave Carter and the others the power of Watchers to fight, with the team getting the upper hand until Uatu told them to wait. He tried to reason with the Watchers but they instead tried to erase every variant of the team from existence. Carter sacrificed herself to save her friends, attacking Eminence to stop the attack and transporting everyone to Strange's universe.
Carter's sacrifice paid off as the Watchers were powerless in Strange's universe. Later, Carter's friends commemorated her actions by sending her shield flying through the Observational Plane. The Watcher suggested that Carter was still watching over them in some form, for the first time able to sense that he was being watched by something.
In an alternate 2021, in a universe designatedEarth-838, Captain Carter is a member of theIlluminati. WhenThanos instigates the Infinity War, she and the Illuminati successfully defeat him using theBook of Vishanti. She is also present at the execution of838-Stephen Strange, who became corrupted by theDarkhold. Carter and her fellow Illuminati debate what to do withEarth 616-Strange andAmerica Chavez when they arrive on Earth-838. When their headquarters are attacked by 616-Wanda Maximoff, who has possessed the body of her 838-counterpart, Carter is killed when she is bisected by her own shield.[23]
In other universes, Carter has donned several mantles and identifies, including anAsgardian warrior,Sabretooth,Black Knight,Elektra, andDeathlok.[24]
About the character's debut inCaptain America: The First Avenger, Atwell stated, "I likened her character to that famousGinger Rogers quote. She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards and in high heels. She's an English soldier through and through, although she always looks fabulous. She might stand there with a machine-gun shootingNazis, but she's obviously gone to the loo beforehand and applied a bit of lipstick. She doesn't need to be rescued. That's exciting to me – her strength."[25] She added, "I think she's quite stubborn, a slightly frustrated woman who struggles with being a woman in that time. But more importantly she's a modern woman and she sees something in Captain America that she relates to, and becomes kindred spirits. He treats her very differently to how she's been treated by lots of men, in this kind of dominated world she lives in. So she's very much a fighter."[25]
Carter is the first female character to headline a standalone story as part of the MCU, ahead of popular comic characters such asBlack Widow andCaptain Marvel. Unlike other major Marvel heroes, Carter does not have any superpowers, instead the writers "always said her superpower is the fact that other people underestimate her. And she often uses that to her advantage".[26] Atwell said it was "thrilling" to explore "the backdrop of this male-dominated world, where women are still in the workforce, unspoken for and struggling to find a place outside the home" and how it affects Carter, who must deal with this along with the missions she receives.[27]
On the character starring in her own short film, the director of theAgent Carter short filmLouis D'Esposito said that Marvel always wanted to do a Peggy Carter short since the character "was a fan-favorite and aMarvel Studios favorite". D'Esposito enjoyed the moment when Carter uses hercompact to view the bad guy, which wasad libbed during filming, because "that's the essence of what she's about and what the film's about. Not only is she—especially in that time—a woman in a man's world, she still maintains her femininity".[28]
Speaking about the influence that the apparent death of Steve Rogers has on Carter, Atwell explained that "It's only been a year and she's grieving him and I think what keeps her going is he was the greatest person she ever knew ... she's also determined to make sure that his work wasn't in vain."[29] Following the first season, Atwell noted that Carter did not "win everyone's respect", withJack Thompson taking credit for her actions, for example, but "she knows her value so she doesn't need that praise".[citation needed] For the second season, executive producer Michele Fazekas explained that after Carter "put a lot of things emotionally to bed", such as letting go of Captain America, she is now "more open to looking at her life and figuring out, does she want a relationship?" Fazekas added that Carter would start to realize that "not everybody has her ideals", even in the SSR.[30]
For Carter's costumes, though some vintage pieces were used, most of her outfits were custom made to accommodate the scripted action scenes.[31] Costume designer Giovanna Ottobre-Melton gave the outfits an "hourglass style with strength in the tailoring and defined shoulders, but not overly exaggerated." For the character's tactical gear, World War II underground military looks were referenced.[32] On receiving the script forCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, Atwell realized the character "would be 96, and I would be up to the eyeballs inprosthetics." The visual effects team was not satisfied with the initial make-up used to make Atwell look older, and eventually resorted to aging her throughCGI methods.[33]
ReviewingCaptain America: The First Avenger,Christy Lemire of theAssociated Press said, "Atwell's gorgeous looks make her a great fit for the part, but her character is better developed than you might imagine; she's no damsel in distress, waiting for Captain America to save her, but rather a trained fighter who is very much his equal."[34]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times felt that she resembled "a classic military pin-up of the period" with her depicted "full red lips" of the film.[35]
Rosie Fletcher ofTotal Film noted that the Marvel One-Shot short filmAgent Carter was well received by the audience atSan Diego Comic-Con, and praised Atwell's performance.[36] Andy Hunsaker atCraveOnline said the short "gives its title character the send-off she deserves", and hoped that it would lead to further female-focused properties from Marvel.[37]IGN's Scott Collura called Atwell "the big-screen female superhero we've all been waiting for. She kicks so much ass in this short story with such aplomb, using not just brawn but also brains, and it's all very clever and fun." He felt the short seemed more of a proof-of-concept that female-based superhero projects could work, but that "Atwell never loses touch with her feminine side" either.[38]
Brian Lowry, reviewing the two-part premiere of the TV seriesAgent Carter forVariety, felt that giving Atwell her own television series was "a pretty smart bet" by Marvel, and he called the episodes "considerable fun".[39]
The A.V. Club named Atwell's performance as one of the "Best Individual Performances" of 2015.[40]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Scream Award | Breakthrough Performance – Female | Captain America: The First Avenger | Nominated | [41] |
| Best Science Fiction Actress | Nominated | ||||
| 2014 | Saturn Award | Best Actress on Television | Agent Carter | Nominated | [42] |
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