Avengers: Endgame saw Chris Evans’ Captain America finally reuniting with Agent Peggy Carter, with the two getting their long-awaited dance. Hayley Atwell reflected on how much she loved the ending leaving emotions up to the viewer’s imagination.
While the MCU has become divisive in recent years, one of the original splitting points in audiences came at the end of Avengers: Endgame when Captain America went back in time to spend his life with Peggy Carter. Many fans saw this as a slap in the face to the events of Agent Carter, which largely served to show how Peggy moved on following Steve Rogers’ trip into the ice. However, it seems the show’s star Hayley Atwell doesn’t echo that sentiment, reflecting on how much she loved the ending of the film:
“They didn’t want him knocking on the door and her answering it and her reaction, because that seems to be an obvious but very literal,” Atwell told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “But there’s something for me when I watch it now, more evocative by the fact you just see the door open. The song’s already playing. It’s like that they have that initial moment at the door just for themselves. And so how that then lives in the audience’s imagination is they get to fill in the emotion of that for themselves, rather than seeing Peggy have that emotion. And then you go in and they’re already-they’ve already found each other and it feels like you’re just-it’s a voyeuristic kind of discovery of them both together, which I thought was so sensitively done.”
There’s no denying that Avengers: Endgame did have one emotional gut punch at the end with Peggy and Steve reuniting. The emotion could be felt simply through Chris Evans’ and Hayley Atwell’s faces. While Agent Carter may be over, Atwell continues to be involved with the MCU through projects such as What If? and the Doctor Strange sequel. So while this may have been a lovely ending, it may not truly have been the end.
A Multiverse of Possibilities
What If…? also features the voices of Josh Brolin, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Jeffrey Wright, Hayley Atwell and other major stars from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series “flips the script on the MCU, reimagining famous events from the films in unexpected ways,” according to Marvel’s official description of the series.
In addition to the second season of What If…?, Marvel is also working on two more animated series — Marvel Zombies and Spider-Man: Freshman Year. The former is a direct spin-off of What If…? episode five, which revolves around a Marvel Cinematic Universe that suffers from a zombie plague.
All episodes of the first season of What If…? are now available to stream on Disney Plus. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
