“Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One” and one of the revelations of the film, at least if you haven’t been paying attention over the years, is Haley Atwell, a huge scene stealer, who matches Tom Cruise beat for charming beat within the film. For many, she’s the real find and gem of the film, the discovery if you maybe haven’t seen much of the other work.
And yes, she’s famous for playing Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and famously starred in the short-lived spin-off series, “Agent Carter.” But Atwell’s seemingly always been slightly frustrated with her Marvel role, grateful for having the opportunity to play Peggy Carter, but let down a little by the series and some of her underwhelming appearances throughout the MCU. Some thought her multiverse cameo in “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness,” where she got to play Captain Carter, the multiverse version of Captain America, also featured in the animated “What If…?” might have finally fulfilled her. Still, in a recent episode of Josh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confused, Atwell admitted—perhaps because she is so protective of the character—that her ‘Madness’ appearance also frustrated her because, while the character made a triumphant live-screen debut, she was killed off almost instantly.
“I’m like, ‘That wasn’t my choice!’” Atwell told Happy Sad Confused (listen and watch below). “When she was like, ‘I could do this all day,’ and then followed by she’s immediately cut in half by a [her shield]. And the audience being like, ‘She can’t do it all day. Apparently, you can’t, so, egg on your face.’ That doesn’t really serve Peggy very well.”
“I felt like I had much more to do in the What If…? animation series,” she continued, a character that will likely appear more in season two of the series. “I mean, any actor will tell you, to be able to go into a booth in effectively your pajamas and do an animation is great fun because you’re focused on the voice as the instrument and your main performative tool.” By contrast, “it felt like a frustrating moment in ‘Strange.’”
Atwell spoke to EW recently and echoed similar comments about her frustration with Captain Carter’s treatment in the film. “I liked the fight scenes,” Atwell told EW, mirroring the HSC comments in a way. “It was great to see her in that outfit, seemingly taking a more active role. But it was a very underwhelming moment.”
Is Atwell ungrateful? Maybe to the casual eye, but if you’ve followed her comments over the years, the actor seems fiercely protective of Peggy and wants her to really shine and have her moment rather than just being a supporting character for a setpiece—which is precisely what she is in ‘Multiverse of Madness’ unfortunately.
Still, the MCU’s multiverse really has no bounds, and if there’s more multiversal madness to happen in, say, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” or “Avengers: Secret Wars,” it is possible she could appear. Given her new breakout role in ‘Dead Reckoning,’ which will travel into part two, Marvel may want to give that idea a second look rather than just saying goodbye to the character now.
Either way, ‘Dead Reckoning’ is in theaters now, and you can watch the entire podcast conversation below.
