Hayley Atwell relished the chance to play Captain Carter in the MCU, but found her actual cameo appearance in live-action to be underwhelming in comparison to her work in the franchise’s best animated series.
Peggy Carter stands among the best MCU characters, forming a bona fide love story with Steve Rogers as part of the Captain America cast. But fans have also had chance to see her wield the vibranium shield herself as Captain Carter, whether in What If…? or in her live-action cameo in Doctor Strange 2.
You can read our Doctor Strange 2 review to find out what we thought of the movie, but Atwell has given her take while promoting Mission Impossible on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. She said it “wasn’t my choice” for Captain Carter to be swiftly killed off at the hands of Scarlet Witch.
Atwell said: “When she was like, ‘I could do this all day’, and then followed by she’s immediately cut in half by a frisbee. And the audience being like: ‘She can’t do it all day. Apparently you can’t, so, egg on your face’. That doesn’t really serve Peggy very well.”
She added that her death “felt like a frustrating moment” and explained that she had a much better time in What If…?, in which Captain Carter led her own episode and was a key part of the finale.
Atwell said: “I felt like I had much more to do in the What If…? animation series. I mean, any actor will tell you, to be able to go into a booth in effectively your pajamas and do an animation is great fun because you’re focused on the voice as the instrument and your main performative tool.”
We’re very much on board with Atwell here. What If…? was loads of fun, whereas the entire Illuminati sequence in Doctor Strange 2 felt like an excuse to get applause from cinema audiences rather than a way to do justice to characters from some of the best movies in the superhero canon.
If you want to refresh your memory of Peggy and Captain Carter, check out the Marvel movies in order. We’ve also got guides to upcoming Marvel movies in the franchise, including the Captain America 4 release date and The Marvels release date. But unfortunately, we’ve got some bad news about Deadpool 3.
Elsewhere, you can also watch the Mission Impossible movies in order and find out what we thought about one of the biggest new movies of 2023 in our Mission Impossible 7 review. However, we still think that the best Mission Impossible movie will always be the Fallout trailer.