Although Peggy Carter existed in Marvel Comics prior to the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, Hayley Atwell’s performance as the character in that 2011 movie and throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched her to new heights of popularity. Even with the MCU’s main version of Peggy having died offscreen in Captain America: Civil War, Atwell has portrayed other versions of the character in film and TV, and her fans continue to be awesome after all this time. This was exemplified last year at the world premiere for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the MCU’s 28th movie.
During an interview with LRM Online, Multiverse of Madness costume designer Graham Churchyard recalled seeing the fans who turned out for the premiere dressed as Captain Carter, the Earth-838 version of Peggy who was injected with the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers. As Churchyard explained:
You think the world’s watching. Kind of when you are making things, particularly in this subgenre, you kind of think, ‘Are people going to cosplay this?’ You know, I want them to feel like they want to.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’s Captain Carter is the second version of this superhero take on Peggy Carter we’ve seen, the first coming from the animated series What If… ?. While that latter Peggy is still alive and expected to appear in What If… ? Season 2, the former, like almost all her Illuminati cohorts, was murdered at the hands of Earth-616’s Wanda Maximoff, who’d become Scarlet Witch. Hayley Atwell found her Doctor Strange 2 appearance “frustrating,” but hey, at least it finally gave her the opportunity to play a costumed superhero onscreen.
As for Graham Churchyard, he certainly accomplished his goal of creating a costume that fans would want to cosplay themselves, and he was pleased to see so many Peggy Carter enthusiasts attend the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premiere dressed in their replicated outfits. In his words:
So, it was something else when I went to the premiere [of Multiverse of Madness] there were already people dressed up as Captain Carter, or Captain Britain, we called her back then. There were just a lot of cosplayers already having taken the trailer apart and just gone crazy and updated their cosplaying costume into the new look, so that was a thrill to see.
Aside from What If… ? Season 2, Hayley Atwell doesn’t have any other MCU appearances lined up. That said, since we’re still in the midst of The Multiverse Saga, it’s possible we could meet another version of Peggy in another reality, perhaps in either Avengers: The Kang Dynasty or Avengers: Secret Wars. Outside of the MCU, the actress showed off her action bonafides this past summer in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, and she’ll reprise Grace next year in Dead Reckoning Part Two. She’s also set to voice Lara Croft in the animated Tomb Raider series that’s premiering to Netflix subscribers at a yet-to-be-revealed date.
Stream Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the rest of Atwell’s MCU work with a Disney+ subscription. If your eyes are pointed to the future, out upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows guides detail what this superhero franchise has officially slated over the next several years.
