Hayley Atwell Still Wants More ‘Agent Carter’ [TCA 2016]
Hayley Atwellwas on a Television Critics Association panel for her new seriesConviction, just after ABC Entertainment PresidentChanning Dungeyspoke about the decision not to move forward with a third season ofAgent Carter. After the panel, Atwell spoke with reporters about her feelings aboutAgent Carterand gave us hope of seeing Peggy Carter again. She was prepared to do both shows if ABC would let her.
“I think they would have figured something out in terms of making a special or waiting until we finish this season and then me doing something else with another network perhaps,” Atwell said. “All I’m saying with that is it’s still a much-loved show for the people involved in the making of it and we know that the fans, it has a special place in their hearts. That’s something that I would be very happy to go back to if the opportunity came.”
This isn’t just idle speculation. Atwell is championing the cause of more Peggy Carter adventures. “I’d love there to be,” she said. “I hound [Marvel Studios co-president]Louis D’Espositoon a regular basis saying, ‘Give me a movie.’ The great thing about Peggy is we know fromThe Winter Soldierthat she lives a long life, so she can come back. I’m banking on when I’m in my 50s, let’s see what Peggy’s up to in this decade.”
Atwell elaborated on her turmoil waiting for the word on bothConvictionandAgent Carter. “It was unclear ifAgent Carterwould go ahead,” she said. “We felt by the end of the second series, it’s a miniseries, it’s midseason. It’s always one of those much loved but little places that it had in the world of ABC. It was very much up in the air. I was able to let that go. I’m quite good at letting go of that which is not in my control. Once I have no choice, I just get on with it. I was back to being an actor for hire. That’s how I’ve always been. That’s how I’ll always see myself and that means I’m always starting again. I’m always learning new things.”
“So when this pilot came about, ABC said, ‘This is not we’re cancelingAgent Carter. This is we’ve got a great new project. We really want you in the center of it. We want to see if it’s going to go.’ Then there were talks of, do we do anAgent Carterspecial? Does this not get picked up andAgent Carterdoes? Does the opposite happen? Do neither of them happen? Will I be completely jobless come the summer? All of that was a possibility and you can only really focus on what’s right in front of you.”
What she did not feel was that she had to say goodbye to Peggy Carter. Atwell is confident she’ll play her again. “I don’t feel like I’ve said goodbye to her because she does still seem to live on a lot for a lot of the fans,” she said. “Marvel is still such a big part of my career and I suppose my professional family that I would absolutely not rule out the idea of going back to Peggy at some point or seeing her in other avenues. I love her and I hope that she has a life elsewhere another time.”
