Agent Carter: Dottie's Role Revealed

01/30/2015 11:58 pm EST

Everyone had a funny feeling about Peggy Carter's friend Dottie in Agent Carter, and they certainly weren't unfounded. As one of the series' more mysterious characters, she always left viewers with more questions than answers—especially during last night's episode.

But Dottie's shadowy background and persistent interest in Peggy Carter now make far more sense. Today, Marvel revealed that Dottie is a member of the Black Widow Program, the same Soviet program that turned Natasha Romanov into The Avengers' Black Widow in the modern day Marvel Cinematic Universe.

According to Agent Carters' executive producers, Tara Butters and Michele Fazes, Dottie's dark background—and connection to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe—came from a need to create a female foil for Peggy. As they fleshed Dottie out, the producers realized that they could make her a much bigger cog within Marvel's mythology.

"We weren't sure how much Marvel would want to do that, how much they would allow us because you're essentially creating new canon about a character," Fazes told IGN, who broke the news.

Indeed, Dottie's revelations are a minor retrofit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Widow had only referenced the idea of a Black Widow training program by mentioning a "red room" in The Avengers, but the idea was not explored any further.

"Scarlett Johansson's character is of that sort of world. We didn't know how much they'd be willing to let us play with that but they were very on board from the beginning," Fazekas elaborated. "They thought it was cool."

But the producers clarified that Dottie's training, while Soviet in nature, isn't from a specific "Black Widow" program—yet. Butters said that Dottie's program will most likely evolve in the Black Widow program, much like the SSR will eventually turn into S.H.I.E.L.D.

Dottie—or rather,Comrade Dottie—returns on next week's episode of Agent Carter on February 3rd at 9:00 p.m.

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