Hayley Atwell frustrated with Captain Carter's storyline in 'Doctor Strange': 'I was so disappointed...'
Hayley Atwell has now spent more than a decade in Peggy Carter's shoes. She has featured in movies, done voice roles, and also headlined her own show on ABC. There have been several highs and lows, but only one particular storyline left a bitter taste in her mouth. Atwell recently spoke about her storyline in 2022’s 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' at the For the Love of Fantasy & Sci-Fi convention in London, according to Deadline. She felt that what happened to the alternate version of Peggy Carter in the movie was a "complete disservice to the character.” For those unaware, Peggy Carter's Earth-838 version appeared in the movie. This variant was the leader of the Avengers and also fought in the 'Infinity War.'
In the movie, she appears as Captain Carter, who presides over a hearing to decide the fate of Earth-616's Doctor Strange. Before a vote can be passed, Wanda Maximoff breaches the Illuminati's establishment and kills everyone except Mordo. Captain Carter faces off against Scarlet Witch. She gives it her all, but after a brief battle, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) takes control of the shield. Captain Carter ultimately dies after being struck by her own shield. Atwell was not a fan of the sequence. “If I’m really like brutally honest, I was so disappointed with how they positioned her and what happened to her in that scene. It’s so small, and she gets frisbeed to death,” she shared at the event.
Even during filming, Atwell felt a certain way about the sequence and tried to get it changed. The creatives were receptive but ultimately stuck with their vision. “I tried on set to kind of go, ‘Can I just add? Can I just suggest?’ And they were like, ‘Sure, but no,’” she said. Atwell seemed disappointed that Peggy Carter's sequence did not align with the character's inherent strength. Across the several movies and shows in which the character has appeared, one thing is for sure: Peggy is an incredibly strong individual who would go out with a bang rather than a whimper. This was certainly a ‘whimper,’ especially for the Captain Carter variant who possessed the strength of Captain America. The actress backed the sentiment by saying, “I felt that was like a bum steer (talking about the death sequence)."
This is not the first time Atwell has opened up about her disappointment with the 'Doctor Strange 2' sequence. “When she was like, ‘I could do this all day’ and then followed by she’s immediately cut in half by a frisbee. 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,” she shared three years ago on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Atwell hopes that this was not the end of the road for Captain Carter in the MCU. “I hope maybe one day in the future they’ll give her more in that capacity,” she shared at the event. Hayley Atwell is confirmed to appear in 'Avengers: Doomsday,' which is set to release worldwide on December 18, 2026.
