Agent Carter has officially been cancelled, after lacklustre ratings and promotion by ABC. Did Peggy’s fate in Captain America: Civil War influence the decision?

Spoiler alert for Captain America: Civil War.

Late Thursday night, we were all devastated to learn that ABC has decided to cancel Agent Carter, the Hayley Atwell-led Marvel series set in the late 1940s, following Peggy Carter’s journey beyond Captain America: The First Avenger.

But, if we’re really honest here, was anyone actually surprised? All signs have pointed to Agent Carter‘s cancellation for a while, and Civil War may just have revealed the real reason ABC and Marvel Television are cutting ties with Peggy Carter.

Of course Agent Carter‘s chances weren’t great to begin with. Astonishingly!, the Marvel-franchise period piece with a female lead did not score great ratings — and, considering the similar challenge faced by Supergirl on CBS (luckily that one will live on at The CW), it seems the current climate just isn’t great for girl power superhero shows. (Agent Carter would have slayed in the ’90s though.)

But as they say, it ain’t over till it’s over. After all, ratings aren’t everything — Agent Carter and Jessica Jones remain Marvel’s only commitment to female-led superhero stories, and with an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score and a strong fan following, Peggy Carter was surely a brand Marvel would consider holding on to, right?

Or maybe not. Maybe Agent Carter has actually been over for a while — we just didn’t know it yet.

Back in February, the curious news broke that Hayley Atwell had landed the lead role in a brand new ABC series, titled Conviction. Meanwhile, Agent Carter executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters committed to another ABC pilot, The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez.

When Conviction was announced, Atwell told worried fans that ABC had promised her they could schedule her in both shows if Agent Carter was renewed. But what she told The Hollywood Reporter felt more like a farewell than a reassurance:

“Things are nicely wrapped up in a way that I think the audience will find very satisfying. The audience won’t feel frustrated. If anything, they’ll come away satisfied but also curious as to what happens beyond, because thanks to all the Marvel films she has appeared in, we know that Peggy’s life goes on and she lives quite an extraordinary life and a long life. So there’s always room to revisit her in different ways, different decades and different ages.”

Although it’s not unusual for actors and writers to shop around ahead of renewal season, having your both your lead and your showrunners commit to other projects so early (and so publicly) is pretty unusual — unless they/the network knew something we didn’t.

Which, of course, they did.

In Captain America: Civil War, Peggy Carter dies. Or, rather: Steve Rogers gets word of her death, travels to Britain to take part in her funeral, and is reintroduced to Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp), his brand new Carter-blooded love interest.

Unlike in Winter Soldier, where she actually had a presence, Peggy is only present in Civil War in the form of a photograph, and her ‘legacy’ for Captain America amounts to a piece of posthumous advice on his current predicament (reducing her story to being all about Steve, from the movies’ perspective), and a new girlfriend — who, let’s face it, probably would have gone over with critics a lot better if they’d played down her icky connection to Steve’s best girl.

Related: Why the women of Captain America: Civil War matter

Although this was a Captain America film, we can all agree that many other franchise characters were allowed more than their fair share of screen time (looking at you, Ant-Man). Something as monumental as Peggy Carter’s death shouldn’t have been about Steve, or even Sharon. Peggy’s value did not lie in her importance to them.

Yet Peggy was disposed of off-screen, her death serving as a plot point to propel the lead male character’s journey. When you compare that to what Peggy was allowed to do in her own TV series — from “I know my value” to literally saving the world — her MCU send-off was laughable. If Marvel truly valued Peggy Carter, they would have let her death be about her. She’d earned that much.

Credit: Head Over Feels

In 2016, Peggy was 95 years old, and her death was inevitable. But the dismissal of Peggy Carter and her entire legacy in Captain America: Civil War spoke volumes about her lack of importance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and, in extension, Marvel Television), beyond being a point of nostalgia for Steve.

By ending her story in Civil War the way they did — not by killing her off, but by doing it off-screen without even letting her speak for herself one last time, either in a flashback or with a letter/final moment with Steve (or even better, Sharon) — Marvel may as well have cancelled Agent Carter right then and there.

With the MCU fridging the lead character in an already ratings-challenged series, the cancellation of Agent Carter was almost inevitable. Marvel was done with Peggy Carter the moment the script for Captain America: Civil War was written. Hayley Atwell knew it; ABC knew it.

And it makes me furious. Because Marvel may be done with Peggy Carter, but I wasn’t — we weren’t. Peggy’s story wasn’t finished yet.

As a wiser person than me said on Twitter:

Here’s hoping Netflix knows Peggy’s value. But with Hayley Atwell’s new procedural picked up to series, the chances are slim. Plus, Marvel has to actually want it — and it just doesn’t feel like their heart is in it.

Are you upset about the cancellation of ‘Agent Carter’?