It’s been almost two years since ABC canceled Agent Carter and while fans of the period superhero drama may still be a little sad that the show ended with its second season, star Hayley Atwell still hasn’t even watched the show’s final episodes.
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At ACE Comic Con in Arizona this weekend, Atwell took audience questions about all things Agent Carter — both show and character — and when a fan asked about Peggy’s romances during the show’s final season, Atwell admitted that she hasn’t watched it.
“I haven’t seen it, so I can’t really remember,” Atwell said.
However, just because she hadn’t gone back and watched the fan-favorite series’ second season didn’t mean she didn’t have insight about Peggy’s relationships. Atwell explained that while the romances in the series were complicated, she liked how the relationships were built around the characters’ situations and experiences specifically when it came to Reggie Austin’s character, Jason Wilkes.
“You know, it was complicated,” she explained. “It was, it’s not a very relaxing situation to be in, but I liked that they kept it… you don’t know until the end and I like the fact that with Reggie, his character’s backstory being something that Peggy could kind of find connection with, how much harder it had been for him and how much harder it had been for her given who they were and that being not fair and giving them a drive because of that partly and so I think that’s where the connection stemmed from.”
Fans of Agent Carter may recall that Jason Wilkes and Peggy became close when Wilkes began assisting the Strategic Scientific Reserve in their investigation of a series of murders connected to Wilkes’ employer, Isodyne Energy. Like Peggy, Wilkes had experienced discrimination in his field, though for Wilkes, because he was black, it was due to race, not gender. Peggy also developed a closeness with her fellow SSR agent Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj,) and while the series ended with Peggy and Sousa’s kiss, Atwell explained that Peggy’s was attracted to Sousa, and even Steve Rogers for similar reasons she had been to Wilkes.
“And then, also, it’s the same with Souza,” she said. “He’s capable but his physical disability is seen by idiots in the SSR as something that makes him have to work harder to prove himself initially, at first, in the beginning but he’s so brilliant that it becomes something that doesn’t even need to be referenced by the end of it and that’s him transcending himself and his fears of his own limitations. I think that’s something that Peggy really connected to as well. And I also think that’s what she liked about Cap is that she fell in love with skinny Steve because of his spirit.”
And while what fans got to see of Peggy’s adventures largely end with Agent Carter, fans can presume that Peggy remained attracted to people based on merit and not appearance. It’s something that Atwell touched on as she talked about her ideas for what a third season of Agent Carter might have looked like, noting that she could see Peggy getting involved in various movements over the years, especially the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements.
“She’s a great cause and she takes action, so there’s so many things going on socially from the 50s to when she passes that I think she’d have loved to be a part of.”
