Avengers: Endgame Writer Says One Thing Standing in Way of Agent Carter Revival

Budget could prevent 1940s-set Captain America spinoff Agent Carter from being revived at Disney+.

"From your lips to [Disney CEO] Bob Iger's ears. I don't know," Stephen McFeely, who penned Avengers: Endgame with writing partner Christopher Markus, told the Los Angeles Times when asked if the Hayley Atwell-led series could find a second wind on Disney's coming streaming service.

"It was an expensive show. You're doing period as well as you can in Los Angeles. I don't know how big the fanbase is, but what it is is really dedicated. And we love the character. So I don't know, I just don't know."

McFeely and Markus, who wrote Marvel Studios' Captain America trilogy, created the series for Disney-owned network ABC, centered around Atwell's Peggy Carter as an agent of the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Set in the year following the apparent death of Captain America (Chris Evans), Carter embarked on her own espionage adventures, sometimes roping Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and butler Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy) into the action.

The fan-favorite series was cancelled by ABC after just two seasons, leaving the modern day Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the network's sole show inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"It's a shame the network canceled it and wanted to put me in something more mainstream," Atwell told the AV Club of short-lived legal drama Conviction, cancelled by ABC after just 13 episodes.

"You know, Marvel didn't want it to end. There's lots of online campaigns to bring her back. Fans loved her. I think it was just a network economical thing: 'Let's put Hayley Atwell in something more mainstream that's less genre-specific and see if we can get higher ratings.' And unfortunately, that isn't, as an actor, anything I've got control over. But maybe, in small ways, characters like Peggy Carter very slowly pave the way for it to be possible for other female-led narratives to exist."

Atwell has since reprised the character in Endgame, appearing first when modern-day Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) time travel to 1970 New Jersey to retrieve the Tesseract. After catching a glimpse of his long lost love, Rogers ultimately makes the decision to return to the past and live out a life he forfeit seven decades earlier.

Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb earlier confirmed the cancellation of Agent Carter was not a Marvel-made decision.

"Unlike the movie studio where they can say, 'In 2019 we're making Captain Marvel,' the television division doesn't have that ability," Loeb told EW. "We are, at the end of the day, beholden to the network that we're on. So for all of you Agent Carter fans out there, we didn't cancel the show."

Agent Carter will be included on Disney+. That service launches November 12 at $6.99 per month.

-----

Have you subscribed to ComicBook Nation, the official Podcast of ComicBook.com yet? Check it out by clicking here or listen below.

In this latest episode, we share our Detective Pikachu review, talk MCU Phase 4, Marvel's new Hulu shows, and more! Make sure to subscribe now and never miss an episode!