What If...? Creator Breaks Down Captain Carter's Surprising Season Finale Friendship
Now that Season 1 of Marvel's What If...? is in the books, fans have been able to really process the series' reality-bending take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series took the canon and characters that audiences know and love and remixed it significantly, allowing for new relationships or rivalries to come to light. Spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Marvel's What If...?, "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?" below! Only look if you want to know!
Among these relationships was a bond between Peggy Carter / Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Lake Bell), whose dynamic in the Captain America: Winter Soldier era of 2014 essentially bookended the episode, and also played significantly into Peggy being able to join forces with an alternate version of Natasha, who was from the alternate universe that originally spawned Ultron (Ross Marquand). Peggy and Natasha's dynamic across the multiverse proved to be a pleasant surprise for many viewers, and for What If...? creator A.C. Bradley, it was rooted in an authentic place.
"It was more an inspiration of Bucky and Steve," Bradley told ComicBook.com shortly after the finale premiered. "Who would be Peggy's Bucky? Who's her BFF? And I just love the idea of writing these two strong kick ass women who are not at odds with each other. They're not in competition with each other, there's no jealousy, there're actually two women supporting each other, saving the day and having fun while doing it. I was just so excited to take my friendships with my female friends, and kind of see that reflected on screen in Peggy and Natasha, which I hope, I think, is the reason that people are vibing with it."
"We all have our Peggy, we all have our Nat, our BFF," Bradley continued. "A good friend of mine calls them '2:00 AM friends.' She's like, 'You have your friends and then you have your friends you can call at two in the morning, and who will throw on their flip flops, grab their car keys and come to wherever you are.' Whatever you need."
Season 1 of What If...? is now available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.