Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Emily VanCamp on Returning to the MCU as a Darker and Edgier Sharon Carter

From Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to enemy of the state, Emily VanCamp‘s Sharon Carter has become darker and edgier by the time she returns in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Marvel moviegoers last saw Sharon help fugitives Captain America (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, only for the spy formerly known as Agent 13 to resurface in Falcon and Winter Soldier as an off-the-grid hustler dealing stolen artwork in the lawless land of Madripoor. Reunited with Sam and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) during their temporary truce with Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), VanCamp’s Carter reenters the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an excommunicated CIA Agent unable to step foot back in America.

“What we do know is she sacrificed a tremendous amount for the cause. When she’s on the run, we don’t know where she’s been … There’s quite a bit more edge to Sharon than we’ve ever seen,” VanCamp told Variety. “She’s not that wide-eyed young agent anymore. She’s a little rough around the edges. Do we find out exactly what she’s had to do in order to be where she is now and survive? No. But we get a sense that it hasn’t always been easy and that the sacrifices she’s made weren’t always worth it in her mind. That was kind of cool to see that chip on her shoulder that we never really did see before.”

The fugitive Carter is so disillusioned and well-connected that some fan theories suspect her to be the mysterious Power Broker calling the shots behind-the-scenes in Madripoor. VanCamp can’t speak to the identity of this as-yet-revealed character, but the Revenge star points out her Sharon Carter is a different person.

On playing a Sharon Carter who is darker-edged than her comic book counterpart, VanCamp said, “And that’s where you trust Marvel at the MCU, which is different than the comic books. They give you this Bible for your character of the different versions of the character from all the different comic books. It gives you a jumping-off point, but really, the beautiful thing is they allow you to kind of create your own version of the character within the MCU, and they do that with the story as well.”

“You get this fundamental idea of who the character is, and I tried to implement into films who Sharon was — that deep respect, and sense of integrity and loyalty that she has,” VanCamp said. “Then to strip away that after being in her mind quite wronged — to put that on its head was just a really fun idea to me. There’s still a few more episodes to see where we go with that, but it was just fascinating that we would take a different route completely with her.”

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