Reports say that an Agent Carter TV series, starring Captain America‘s Hayley Atwell, is close to becoming a reality.
Rumors of a TV show spinoff of Marvel’s first Captain America film have been flying ever since production began on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, a new report indicates that the show – centering on the character of British intelligence agent Peggy Carter – may be a done deal.
According to the UK’s Mirror, actress Hayley Atwell will soon begin work on the Agent Carter TV series. Atwell originated the role of Peggy Carter in the first Captain America film, and will also appear in the sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which will be released in April.
The report from the Mirror says that production on the Agent Carter TV series will begin soon, and that the series will air toward the end of 2014. According to the unnamed source, Hayley Atwell is “absolutely thrilled” about the show, and “incredibly grateful to Marvel fans” who have supported the idea of the new series.
Anticipation for a potential Agent Carter TV series rose after Atwell starred in the Marvel one-shot short film of the same name. The short film, which was released on the Blu-ray for Iron Man 3, focused on Peggy Carter one year after the events of Captain America. Stuck in an office job, Carter is forced to bend the rules in order to successfully complete a covert mission. Tony Stark’s father Howard (Dominic Cooper) briefly appears in the film to recruit Carter as a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. following her mission.
A similar one-shot, titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, starred Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson. The popularity of that short film was reportedly instrumental in the development of the freshmen TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which airs on ABC.
An Agent Carter TV series, if produced, would raise Marvel’s serialized programming roster to six different series. Along with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel recently completed a deal with Netflix to produce four new standalone series with various comic-book heroes. The shows, which will focus on the likes of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, are set to be released in 2015.