Marvel Cinematic Universe star Hayley Atwell reveals the identity of Peggy Carter’s husband in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier – sort of.
What happened to Peggy Carter’s husband?
In an interview with Collider for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Atwell clarified the mystery around Agent Carter’s husband.
During World War II, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) watches a documentary at his own Smithsonian exhibit and discovers — via an interview clip with Carter — that he saved his one-time love’s husband. As it turns out, the art department was ready to place Agent Carter’s family photo next to her bed for the scene where she reunites with Cap. Then Marvel Studios quickly intervened.
“I remember when I was filming it, the prop master had put a framed photograph on Peggy’s bedside, of Peggy with her husband and her children, and Louis de Esposito ran over just before we started rolling, going ’take that out. We don’t know yet. We don’t want to limit ourselves by kind of suggesting this is who she’s married,’’ Atwell recalled. “And so that was taken out. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s really interesting.’”
While the decision to remove the photo surprised Atwell, she respected the fact that Marvel likes to keep the audience invested in supporting characters like Agent Carter.
“I think what [Marvel is] so good at, they’re so good at giving the audience what they want and exceeding the expectations,” Atwell continued. “And I think that’s why they’re always aware of just feeding the amount of information that the audience need to know, to keep engaged, but also delighting them and surprising them with, with new information.”
Agent Carter’s only other family member established in the MCU is niece Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp), who appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, and 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Agent Carter passed away off-screen in Civil War, but later reunited with Cap when he traveled back in time through the Quantum Realm at the end of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Atwell stars opposite Tom Cruise when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opens in theaters on July 14.
