Agent Carter (TV series)

Marvel's Agent Carter, or simply Agent Carter, is an American television series created by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely for ABC, based on the Marvel Comics character Peggy Carter following her roles in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger and the 2013 Marvel One-Shot short film of Agent Carter. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and shares continuity with the franchise's films and other television series. The series was produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Fazekas & Butters, with Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas, and Chris Dingess serving as showrunners.

The series stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, reprising her role from the film series and One-Shot, with James D'Arcy, Chad Michael Murray, and Enver Gjokaj also starring; they are joined by Shea Whigham for the first season. In the series, Carter must balance life as a secret agent with that of a single woman in 1940s America. Development on a series inspired by the short film had begun by September 2013, with Atwell's involvement confirmed in January 2014. That May, ABC ordered the show straight to series. Agent Carter introduces the origins of several characters and storylines from MCU films, while other characters from the films also appear.

The first season, consisting of eight episodes, originally aired from January 6 to February 24, 2015, while the second season, consisting of 10 episodes, originally aired from January 19 to March 1, 2016. Both seasons aired during mid-season breaks of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Carter received a positive critical response, but viewership fell and ABC cancelled the series on May 12, 2016.

Premise

The first season takes place in 1946, with Peggy Carter having to balance the routine office work she does for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) in New York City with secretly helping Howard Stark, who is framed for supplying deadly weapons to enemies of the United States. Carter is assisted by Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, to find those responsible and dispose of the weapons. In the second season, set approximately six months to a year following the events of the first season in 1947, Carter moves from New York City to Los Angeles to deal with the threats of the new Atomic Age by the Council of Nine in the aftermath of World War II. In the season, she gains new friends, a new home, and a potential new love interest.

Cast and characters

• Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter:
  An SSR agent initially stuck doing administrative work. Butters said Carter's "superpower is the fact that other people underestimate her. And she often uses that to her advantage". On the influence that the apparent death of Steve Rogers has on Carter, Atwell explained that "he was the greatest person she ever knew—even before he took the serum and became Captain America. She knew his character and she saw a kindred spirit in him. So I think she's grieving the loss of him but she's also determined to make sure that his work wasn't in vain. That gives her a tremendous amount of determination to carry on despite the obstacles that she comes across." Gabriella Graves portrays a young Carter.
• James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis:
  Howard Stark's butler and ally to Carter, who will eventually be a tutor to Tony Stark and inspire his J.A.R.V.I.S. artificial intelligence. Atwell referred to Carter's relationship with Jarvis as the series' "comic relief", and said "she needs someone who is in contact with Howard to help kind of run this mission[, and] they have this very witty banter back and forth". Fazekas explained that some of the character's persona "has come from the comics and some of it we've developed ourselves. Some of it is influenced by James D'Arcy himself and his strengths." D'Arcy was initially nervous about portraying Jarvis's comedic side, given his history of "predominantly play[ing] psychopaths". He did not study Paul Bettany's performance as J.A.R.V.I.S. when approaching the character.
• Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson:
  A war veteran and agent with the SSR, described as chauvinistic and "chest-puffing". Murray compared the character to Indiana Jones, and stated that "he's working his way up to become the head of the SSR. His goal in life is to just be great at his job. So he has a large chip on his shoulder, which gives him an attitude." Murray also noted that, unlike his character on One Tree Hill, Thompson does not serve as the "moral compass", which meant that he would not be "confined to a box" and would instead be allowed to "really play things up and do what's unexpected". For the second season, Thompson is made chief of the East Coast SSR office.
• Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa:
  A war veteran who is an agent with the SSR and experiences prejudice due to his injured leg. "He accepts his injury, he accepts his compromised status in society ... Peggy says, 'Forget this. I'm Peggy Carter. I'm going to do something else.' I think that's the difference between the two of them." Considering a potentially romantic relationship between Sousa and Carter, Gjokaj said, "I think there's definitely a situation where...if she hadn't dated Captain America, he might ask her out for a drink. It's like if your new girlfriend dated Ryan Gosling. It's going to make you sweat a bit." For the second season, Sousa is made chief of the West Coast SSR office.
• Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley:
  The SSR chief who oversees Agents Carter, Thompson, and Sousa until he dies to save his fellow SSR agents at the end of season one. Whigham believes that, unlike many of the other agents, Dooley does respect Carter, saying, "I think he likes her. I think he cares deeply. I'm not sure that he can always show that ... these are things that keep him up at night, as well as the other boys, when I send them out on missions." The character was always intended to die during the first season's penultimate episode to help build stakes for the series given that "everyone knows Peggy lives", so from the beginning, Whigham was only hired for the seven required episodes.

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2016)

Production

Development

A potential Agent Carter series was initially brought up in July 2013 by Louis D'Esposito, after a screening of his Agent Carter Marvel One-Shot at San Diego Comic-Con. By September, Marvel Television was developing a series inspired by the short film, featuring Peggy Carter, and was in search of a writer for the series. In January 2014, ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee confirmed that the show was in development, and revealed that Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas would act as the series' showrunners. Chris Dingess also serves as a showrunner. In March 2014, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, writers of the Captain America films, stated that they envisioned the series, which had not yet been greenlit, as a limited series of approximately 13 episodes. By April 2014, there were indications that the series would be ordered straight to series, bypassing a pilot order, and would air between the late 2014 and early 2015 portions of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., if that series got a second season renewal. On May 8, 2014, ABC officially ordered the series for eight episodes, with executive producers Butters, Fazekas, Markus, McFeely, Dingess, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Alan Fine, Joe Quesada, Stan Lee, and Jeph Loeb. The series was renewed for a second season on May 7, 2015, of 10 episodes.

Writing

Markus and McFeely stated in March 2014 that the series would be set in 1946 initially, occurring in the middle of the timeline established in the One-Shot, and would focus on one case for Carter. Additional seasons would then advance a year and examine a new case. Despite working on Captain America: Civil War at the same time, Markus and McFeely remained involved with the series after writing the first script. When the showrunners joined the series, they went on a "mini-camp" with Markus and McFeely to develop the series from a pilot script written by the pair. They looked to several different influences outside of Marvel in developing the series, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, L.A. Confidential, and the works of author James Ellroy. Elaborating on deviating from the comics, Fazekas said, for example, "if we're using a minor character or a bad guy from an old comic book, we don't have to adhere to what that character was in that comic book from 1945. Because there are so many different iterations of a specific character, you can't be true to every single one." ABC asked the producers to not have the series follow a "Gadget of the Week or Bad Guy of the Week" model, and instead focus on telling the story of Carter balancing her personal and professional lives. Fazekas called this "such a nice change" from previous television experience, with the group feeling free to drop whole story ideas in favor of focusing on the series' central storyline.