Once upon a time, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) had a romance troubled by time and superhero business. In Avengers: Endgame, they got a happy ending, at least if you didn’t ask any questions about time travel and… let’s not get into it. Their story—apart from some multiversal mayhem and the series What If…?—seemed to be mostly over.
Just kidding.
Last week, the news broke first that Evans will be returning to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday, though it has not been made clear that he will (or won’t) be playing Captain America. Later in the week, more news: Atwell, too, will be returning, though Deadline’s sources are clearer on this front: “Sources tell Deadline that Hayley Atwell is expected to reprise her Agent Carter role in the film.”
Of course, none of this means anything until it does. It could be that they both appear in a multiversal moment of happiness that zips by while someone is barreling through worlds and times. It could be virtually nothing. It could be a lot! Though, as noted, Deadline’s story specifies Agent Carter—not Captain Carter (who Atwell played in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, pictured above).
Hayley Atwell is a fantastic actress (seriously, go watch her with Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw in the 2008 Brideshead Revisited!) and should get to be in everything. Peggy Carter is a delightful character. But isn’t Marvel creating a whole new baby Avengers team with its TV series? Is there not a lot more ground to cover in decades’ worth of comics? Do we need to go back to the same wells? That said, I will eat my words if they let currently 42-year-old Atwell be a full-fledged action star.
Everything old may or may not be new again when Avengers: Doomsday arrives on May 1, 2026.
