When it comes to naming the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most beloved and popular supporting players, Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter has to be right up there with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, especially now that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki has finally ascended to leading man status thanks to his Disney Plus solo series.
The actress blew everyone away with her performance in Captain America: The First Avenger, but the movie’s setting as a World War II period piece meant that she’d never factor all that heavily into the modern timeline again. She did get to headline her own TV show that ran for two seasons, though, but even then Agent Carter was only beginning to hit its stride when the plug was pulled.
The creators of Marvel’s What If…? have admitted that Peggy is the closest thing the show has to a main character, and the response to Atwell’s turn as Captain Carter in the first episode was wildly positive to put it lightly. There’s now hope that we could end up getting the female super soldier in live-action, and new fan art from digital artist César imagines exactly that, which you can check out below.
Atwell may have made her MCU debut a decade ago when The First Avenger hit theaters, but she’s still a lot younger than fellow franchise alumni Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Chris Pratt, Oscar Isaac and Danai Gurira, all of whom are set to headline either feature films or streaming exclusives throughout Phase Four. Time is very much on her side, so fingers crossed that a live-action Captain Carter might one day become a reality.
