Few of the actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have had the opportunity to play their roles more times than others. Some names may come to mind, such as Samuel L. Jackson, whom we saw in many movies assembling the group of superheroes known as The Avengers. But there's also Hayley Atwell, a franchise veteran who has played Peggy Carter on many occasions.
The British actress rose to prominence when she debuted in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, the first solo film for the character she is named after. She has made approximately ten appearances, including the one in which she led the series Agent Carter for 18 episodes. A few years went by without seeing her character in live-action adaptations until that cameo in Avengers: Endgame and then, more recently, in the Doctor Strange crossover in the Multiverse of Madness.
During an interview with the Magazine, the actress confessed that she was not entirely happy with the path that Peggy Carter had taken in the franchise. While she appreciated the love from fans, saying she found it beautiful that they had so much affection for her character, she said it wasn't a trajectory she would have wanted her to have in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but perhaps a more complex one.
"It definitely wasn't, you know, the trajectory I see for Peggy. I definitely wish she had more to do with herself… I'm a custodian of her. Compared to the rest of my career and everything that I've done or my work on stage and doing Mission: Impossible now and all the diversity of roles that I've played, and the diversity that I get to explore and be able to play more complex roles and villains and many different things: she is no longer mine. She lives in the world of the people who have taken her into their hearts. And that's beautiful. But it's kind of like: yeah, you can't control the impact a particular role has on the rest of the world."
After Avengers: Endgame, Hayley Atwell had said that she said goodbye to her character, but a couple of years later we saw her in the Doctor Strange movie. Although she probably won't be back, now definitely, at some point there were many rumors that she was working on a Captain Carter solo project, but it never became more than rumors. Apparently, Atwell wouldn't be too excited to continue down that particular path, though it definitely can't be ruled out that we'll see her again considering no actor really strays from the franchise.
For now, the MCU is focused on what will be its Phases 5 and 6, where some of the titles to be released on film and television are already confirmed. There are still more surprises to come, even though we already know several names of projects that we can assume will be extremely large and important for what is about to happen in the story that Marvel Studios is plotting, in addition to the fact that characters that have returned from other studios will be added to finally joining the franchise and being able to have their own stories under this new but familiar roof.
