With the slow hit that became Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last season, get ready for early 2015 because when SHIELD’s second season goes for its winter hiatus, a brand new Marvel show will debut with a very familiar fan-favorite character.
It’s none other than one of the strongest female characters of the MCU, Agent Peggy Carter. She’s played by the magnificent Hayley Atwell, who portrayed the character in the first two Captain America movies as well as the Marvel One-Shot, Agent Carter, the inspiration for this show.
Last Friday afternoon at San Diego Comic-Con, TVOvermind got to participate in the press junket for the anticipated ABC/Marvel show and we got to talk to Agent Carter herself as well as the creative team behind the show.
TVOvermind’s Andy Behbakht: What are you hoping to be able to do with your character now that you perhaps didn’t get to do in the two first films?
Hayley Atwell [Agent Peggy Carter]: I think in the first two movies and the one-shot [also called Agent Carter] we got a taste of who she is, there was very little air time to establish the character. So this is really the beginning of the adventures of who she is and many aspects of her life will be challenged and compromised. She will be put into a lot of high stakes situations where she has to reveal who she is and what she is capable of, so this is her beginning.
TVO: Like an origin story?
Atwell: I suppose so, yeah, a development of who she is and what she has to go through.
TVO: When we last saw Agent Carter in 1946 [in Captain America: The First Avenger], Captain America had so many allies, so is there any chance that we might see them interact a bit with Peggy? Like the Howling Commandos?
Louis D’Esposito [EP/Show-Runner/Pilot Director]: Howling Commandos? Yeah, that’s a possibility to bring in. They are part of that era and they are all alive and they are back in the states. Maybe not one of them or two [laughs], but hopefully we will see a few [of them].
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Next up were the writers of Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Stephen McFeely and Christopher Marcus who are currently writing the third installment of the Captain America franchise and now involved with Agent Carter.
TVO: What were some of the inspirations that you guys took from, for example, previous work you have done before, to basically put together this show for one of the most beloved female characters of the Marvel universe?
Stephen McFeely [Writer of Agent Carter Pilot/EP/Show-Runner]: On a practical level, we have to find an engine that runs to aid the stories. Someone was saying over there [points toward one of the other round tables], that you know kind of what the end point is in a way, because she is not going to drop dead. We know she is going to get to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so you have to tell different stories that are also suspenseful. So I’m going to hedge you a little bit that we found a really good engine that’s going to add other complications for the Marvel universe with other Marvel characters to keep the suspense going. But it’s not going to be, will she or won’t she get out, because she is going to end up alive.
Christopher Marcus [Writer of Agent Carter Pilot/EP/Show-Runner]: Part of the inspirations for the story was also 1946 because it’s such a, like everything was up in the air. The war ended, scientists and weapons, everything got sort of thrown in the air, the Russians and the Americans were chasing them all over the place. Because in the World War II era, everything solidified to two sides and then it broke wide open and it’s a great sandbox to play in because loyalties hasn’t firmed up yet, we are not really positive whether we hate the Russians yet. Everyone is backstabbing each other and it’s sort of nice to play with that.
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Lastly, but definitely not the least, Michele Fazekas, one of the show-runners of both Agent Carter and Resurrection (another ABC show that has been renewed for a second season and is set to return on Sunday, September 28). While it’s not much, it’s a good tease to look forward to in the first season!
TVO: So you get to handle one very popular female character in the Marvel universe, are there perhaps any other female Marvel characters that you would like to introduce?
Michele Fazekas [EP/Show-Runner]: Yeah! And that’s all I can say! [laughs]
Marvel’s Agent Carter starring Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is set to debut its first season which consists of eight episodes, in early 2015, Tuesday nights at 9/8c on ABC.
[Photo via ABC]
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