Agent Carter‘s showrunners have confirmed the shocking truth of what’s up with Peggy’s deadly new neighbor, Dottie Underwood.
Dottie (Bridget Reagan), who was introduced as a doe-eyed ballerina from Idaho, revealed some pretty sick ninja skills in last night’s episode of Agent Carter. Showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have spoken up to confirm fan suspicions that Dottie is in fact “a product of the Black Widow Program.”
Yes, that Black Widow program — the same Soviet organization responsible for the Avengers’ ultra-badass Natasha Romanoff.
“We actually never say Black Widow,” Fazekas clarifies, but “you’ll learn even more about it and her history in the next episode.”
“Basically,” Butters says, “Dottie is the product of a Russian spy program which could end up being the Black Widow program.”
Something Dottie is not, however, is Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow comrade, Yelena Bolova. Whether or not Miss Underwood will grow into another character from the Marvel comics remains to be seen.
The idea of utilizing the comics’ rich Black Widow storyline came fairly early in the season, Butters says. “We realized we needed a foil for Peggy that was a female foil. That’s kind of how we came up with Dottie. As we started to create her we realized there was this interesting connection we could be making.”
“We weren’t sure how much Marvel would want to do that, how much they would allow us,” Fazekas admits. “Because you’re essentially creating new canon about a character… We didn’t know how much they’d be willing to let us play with that but they were very on board from the beginning. They thought it was cool.”
Butters adds further praise for the creative freedom Marvel Studios allowed the creative team of Agent Carter.
“They’ve been so excited about these ideas, and so supportive,” she says. “Us showing Dottie as a precursor to the Black Widow Program, Captain America’s blood, these are big things in this universe that they’re willing to let us play with.”
Speaking of playing, undercover-Russian-agent Dottie is presumably not hanging around the Griffith Hotel for kicks. (Though, hey, you never know with the Russians.) Fazekas promises that Dottie’s identity will play an important role in the back half of Agent Carter.
“It’s not a coincidence that she’s in the Griffith and she does have a part in the larger story of the whole season,” the showrunner cautiously confirms. “I feel like if we reveal anything now it’ll be too much of a spoiler, but she’s definitely a big part of Peggy’s overall investigation.”
“The challenge for Peggy is, is she going to find out about [Dottie] in time?” Fazekas teased. “And I think the answer to that is… not really.”
Agent Carter season 1, episode 5, “The Iron Ceiling,” airs on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 9:00 p.m. on ABC.