Reviving the canceled Marvel Television series Agent Carter could help to answer one major mystery from Phase 4 of the MCU, according to a new Marvel theory. Following on from the success of Marvel Television’s Agents of SHIELD and the MCU’s Agent Carter One-Shot, Hayley Atwell reprised her role of Peggy Carter in Agent Carter, an ABC series that premiered in 2015. Atwell previously portrayed SSR agent Peggy Carter in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, with Agent Carter beginning after Steve Rogers’ heroic sacrifice, detailing Carter’s continuing work with the SSR in the years before her recruitment into SHIELD.
Agent Carter season 1 saw Peggy Carter embark on secret missions for Howard Stark, while balancing her administrative position at the SSR and being a single woman in 1940s America. Season 2, set during 1947, saw Peggy Carter relocate to Los Angeles to handle Atomic Age threats, but while the response to both seasons was positive, low viewership meant season 2 was Agent Carter’s last. Peggy Carter reappeared in Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame, and her superhero variant has debuted in the Multiverse Saga, but there are still a lot of mysteries in Peggy Carter’s MCU timeline.
ABC canceled Agent Carter in 2016 after only two seasons, but after Marvel Studios began to produce its own MCU-set TV shows for Disney+, speculation began to emerge suggesting the series could be revived. None of the Marvel Television shows were considered to be canon to the MCU’s main continuity prior to Netflix’s Defenders Saga being integrated into the MCU’s timeline in January 2024. While Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher are the only Marvel Television shows confirmed to be MCU canon, others may follow suit, which could spell good news for Agent Carter.
Speaking at 2022’s AwesomeCon (via YouTube), Hayley Atwell suggested that a potential Agent Carter season 3 could focus on Peggy Carter’s adventures in the new timeline established in Avengers: Endgame. This saw Steve Rogers retire as Captain America and travel to the past to get his happily ever after with his lost love, and with recent speculation that Chris Evans may have signed on to return to the MCU, it’s possible this could come to fruition. If Agent Carter is revived for the MCU, the series may not focus solely on Peggy Carter, but could integrate further into the MCU.
A continuation of Marvel Television’s Agent Carter in the current timeline of the MCU could focus more on the present-day stories of the Carter family. While Peggy Carter herself passed away during Captain America: Civil War, her niece, Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, has become a staple in the MCU’s Captain America storylines. Featuring Sharon Carter in Agent Carter season 3 instead of her aunt could help to solve a major mystery that arose during Phase 4’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in which Sharon Carter was revealed to be the Power Broker, a nefarious crime boss operating in Madripoor.
Sharon Carter being outed as the Power Broker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a controversial choice for Marvel Studios, but featuring Emily VanCamp as the new lead Carter in Agent Carter season 3 could provide more context. As pointed out by Reddit user Andrew_Manangka, Agent Carter season 3 could also detail Sharon Carter’s initiation into SHIELD, work with the CIA, and actions following Thanos’ attack on the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. This could provide an explanation for her descent into villainy, and could be the perfect opportunity to continue The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s cliffhanger.
Ever since Avengers: Endgame featured a five-year time-jump, many have been calling for Marvel Studios to develop a live-action project set during the so-called Blip. The five years between Thanos’ Infinity War snap and the Avengers’ Time Heist have only been seen briefly in projects such as WandaVision, Hawkeye and Echo, but there are many other Blip-set stories that haven’t been explored. While there is speculation that Daredevil: Born Again and other upcoming MCU projects could explore the Blip, Agent Carter season 3’s new focus on Sharon Carter presents the perfect opportunity for the Blip to finally be showcased properly.
Originally, Sharon Carter had been presumed dead during the Blip, but The Falcon and the Winter Soldier revealed that she had relocated to Madripoor after becoming a fugitive in Captain America: Civil War. There, Carter spent the duration of the Blip amassing a huge amount of influence in Madripoor, eventually becoming the mysterious Power Broker, and this evolution could be displayed in detail in a potential Agent Carter season 3. As well as delving deeper into Sharon Carter herself, Agent Carter season 3 could be the Blip-set series that many have been calling for since the beginning of Phase 4.
Alongside exploring more about Sharon Carter’s evolution into the Power Broker, and potentially investigating the five-year-long Blip, Agent Carter season 3 could also solve many other mysteries in the MCU’s current timeline. As pointed out on Reddit, the super-soldier serum funded by Sharon Carter and developed by Wilfred Nagel could have far-reaching repercussions on the MCU. Most notably, there has been some confusion about Wilson Fisk’s new strength levels in the MCU’s Hawkeye and Echo, but Agent Carter season 3 could reveal that Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, may have acquired Nagel’s super-soldier serum from Sharon Carter’s Power Broker.
Agent Carter season 3 could also fill in the gaps in Peggy Carter’s own MCU timeline. Agent Carter season 2 was set in the late 1940s, and Peggy Carter wasn’t canonically seen again until the 1970-set scenes of Avengers: Endgame’s Time Heist, so there are over 20 years missing from Carter’s storyline. This could explore the founding of SHIELD, the discovery of more superheroes, and Peggy Carter’s transition from agent to Director. Agent Carter season 3 could also reveal more about Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers’ relationship in the MCU’s past, perhaps exploring a new timeline of the Multiverse Saga.