Peggy Carter somehow became the poster child for the MCU’s multiverse. The Captain America star got a pre-Disney+ series, Agent Carter, that ran for two seasons in 2015 and ‘16. Now, in Phase 4 of the MCU, Peggy represents what happens when something shifts to create a parallel dimension.
As demonstrated by the first episode of What If...?, in another universe she received the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, creating Captain Carter. Could the character we saw in What If...? and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness have another spinoff in her future? We hope so, because she’s absolutely earned it.
In conversation with Digital Spy, Peggy actor Hayley Atwell suggested Captain Carter deserves more than getting “cut in half by a frisbee” by Wanda Maximoff. Her Multiverse of Madness fate doesn’t necessarily need to be the end of the character. “It was definitely not, you know, the trajectory that I see for Peggy. I would definitely like her to have more to do,” she said.
Just what could that “more” be? The obvious answer is right in front of us: Give Captain Carter her own series. Her character in What If...? is a notable and compelling choice for a spinoff, whether in live-action or with an animated series.
Thanks to the inherent weirdness of the multiverse, her demise doesn’t mean much for her character's future. She can simply appear as another variant. In fact, no character exhibits how variants can have different facets better than Peggy Carter. We’ve seen her young, old, as a super soldier, and as a love interest.
Plus, we already know Hayley Atwell has the chops to lead her own series. With the success of Marvel’s Disney+ series, the two-season fate of Agent Carter could be avoided. Gone are the days of relying on network TV viewers to watch a Marvel show. The franchise has a dedicated streaming audience happy to snap up new projects.
If Phase 4 is about the multiverse, and Peggy Carter is the character who’s been most affected by the multiverse to the point where she’s considered the First Avenger in certain universes, why make her a bit player when she could be helming a story of her own? She could lead a series depicting a slew of Avengers variants, and it wouldn’t affect the mainstream canon when you have an entire multiverse to play with.
Peggy Carter taught us that if you love someone, you’ll find a way back to them. Hayley Atwell loves the MCU, and Marvel fans love Peggy, so why not give her the streaming spotlight she’s more than earned?
Agent Carter, What If...?, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are all streaming on Disney+.
