Hayley Atwell Thinks Agent Carter Wouldn’t Approve of Captain America’s New Love Interest

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Spoilers for Captain America: Civil War will follow in this post, so if you don’t want to hear Hayley Atwell’s thoughts on one of the developments in the film, read no further!

In her performance as Peggy Carter on the Agent Carter TV show, Hayley Atwell has shown us her character’s future after Steve Rogers exits her life. For the entire first season of the show, Peggy is moving on from Steve. In the second season, Peg pursues some new love interests (which wasn’t my favorite plot-line, but still). Agent Carter gave us plenty of time to see Peggy getting over her previous relationship before pursuing another one, and she ended up with someone who seemed like an appropriate fit, as opposed to just a rebound from her attachment to Steve.

Unfortunately, Steve Rogers hasn’t gotten the same opportunity in the Marvel movies. There isn’t as much time to set up a love interest for him as there would be on a TV show. In the comic books, Sharon Carter has previously been a love interest for Steve, but that just hasn’t translated well to the movies. The comic book version of Peggy and Steve’s relationship wasn’t as serious, and although his eventual relationship with Sharon was kind of weird given that he already dated someone who’s related to her, it wasn’t as weird as it is in the movies.

In Civil War, we watch Steve attend Peggy’s funeral. At that very funeral, he finds out that Sharon is Peggy’s niece. For some reason, this knowledge appears to make Steve more attracted to Sharon as opposed to less so. Rebound much??

Anyway, IGN reports that Hayley Atwell just shared her thoughts on the pairing at Dallas Comic Con Fan Expo. She seems to agree with the internet’s assessment, which is that it’s weird as heck for Steve to be kissing Sharon in this movie. She doesn’t think Peggy Carter would approve:

Well, first of all she’d be turning over in her grave. She’d be like “no.” And she’d inject herself with the blue serum and become a super villain. She’d break out of her coffin and ground [Sharon]. She’d ground her. Then she’d kick Steve’s ass as well.

I just feel that, you know–I wouldn’t want to date my great aunt’s guy. It just feels like it crosses an incestuous boundary. And Peggy just died. That’s even more disrespectful, right? It’s like, “don’t touch that.” You can’t tap that!

Atwell is joking around, but through the jokes, she’s still getting at the inherent problems with this particular pairing. And there’s one more reason why Agent Carter wouldn’t approve, according to Atwell: “She’d want the best for her and she’d want her dating a good guy. And now with this whole ‘Hail Hydra’ business, I don’t know if Steve’s good enough for her. So on all levels, it’s just a big fat no.”

Fair enough! Sharon deserves better. And, really, Steve deserves a more appropriate partner also. Why not set Steve Rogers up with someone more appropriate … someone who’s been by his side all along … someone like … the Winter Soldier?

(via IGN, image via Comic Book Movie)

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Maddy Myers
Maddy Myers, journalist and arts critic, has written for the Boston Phoenix, Paste Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and tons more. She is a host on a videogame podcast called Isometric (relay.fm/isometric), and she plays the keytar in a band called the Robot Knights (robotknights.com).