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Agent Carter's Haylee Atwell Discusses Her Character and the Show's Darker Direction

Atwell discusses the tone of the upcoming show in a recent interview

The next Marvel television series is only a week away, as Agent Carter fills in the gap for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The show hits ABC on Tuesday, January 6th, in a two hour series premiere.

In the first episode, SSR Agent Carter, played by Atwell, catches a live radio play called "The Captain America Adventure Program." She is unimpressed by the very patriotic radio play because she knew the real Captain America and truly misses him, as she fought alongside him and the Howling Commandos during the war. Now that everyone is back from the war, he real battle is with those who "marinalize her potential and contributions at the SSR."

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In a recent interview with TVLine, actress Haylee Atwell discussed the upcoming television show and had this to say about her character: "she doesn’t sacrifice her integrity, her morals or her femininity when she’s up against tremendous personal and external obstacles. She is a fighter and a survivor, but she doesn’t have any superpowers... She has to rely on her wits and intelligence and determination to navigate what comes her way."

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While Carter thinks she found the love of her life with Steve Rogers, a man who sacrificed himself for the greater good, his death will affect her in the upcoming show: "You’re seeing someone who has her own demons and her own character flaws, and she’s having to struggle with that while keeping up this facade of a put-together, perfect agent who can cope with everything. But there’s a cost to that... Everyone on the planet is only strong until a certain point, everyone has a trigger, and this season really shows that. [In Peggy] we don’t have someone who is superhuman in her abilities. We see her cry, we see her private moments, we see her loneliness. We see the emotional and psychological costs of the position that she’s in and the loss that she’s had of Steve.”

Atwell goes on to say that this is not a "case of the week" type of show and it won't be as "happy-go-lucky" as some of the shows and films in the Marvel cinematic universe. "It’s not like, ‘Let’s find this ‘bad baby,’ now let’s find that ‘bad baby... It goes to a much deeper, darker place... I was absolutely shocked and delighted when I started to read the later episodes and see the direction we’re going in... That’s one of the advantages of having only eight episodes, is that it’s not diluted over 22. This has a very strong story and is essentially four films.”

Agent Carter debuts Tuesday, January 6th on ABC at 8/7C in a two-hour premiere, then moves into its regular slot, Tuesdays at 9/8C on January 13th.

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eamon542000

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Have they said who the villain is and who will be playing him/her? I've seen very little casting news with the exception of Haley Atwell and Dominic Cooper

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amazing_webhead

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...and the Show's Darker Direction

...No comment

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Jonny_Anonymous

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Edited By Jonny_Anonymous

I wonder how dark it'll actually be

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Knightsofdarkness2

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Loki2u

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This show doesn't interest me at all. I won't be checking this one out.

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GREGalicious

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Edited By GREGalicious

I will say, while Agents of SHIELD looked like nothing to me at first, eventually it's awesome characters (May, Fitz-Simmons, Ward, and of course Coulson!) sucked me in and it's introduction to the Inhumans has really brought it this season.

That being said, I couldn't be more interested in this show. Peggy (aside from Captain America himself) was about the only truly cool thing about the 1st Capt film. I didn't watch 'Agents' until I saw a few great episodes of season 2 but I'm tuning in to this day 1 and I hope it doesn't disappoint.

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SaintWildcard

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That poster of her is horrible

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Golden Cod

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That poster of her is horrible

Why's that? I think the silhouette gives the poster a nice noir vibe.

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acer51

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I have been thoroughly disappointed in Agents of Shield since it's release, despite this I've continued to watch and see if it gets better, and it has a little but I'm pretty sure it'll never be the show I want it to be, with this series coming from the same vein makes me expect little.

Being in the 1950s there isn't as much material to go on, there's material there but their going to have to be creative with it. In the end content will not be what makes or breaks this show, more than anything it will be compelling characters and an interesting story not bound by the rules of comic books, they need to make us forget we're watching a show set in the Marvel universe and then remind us in the coolest way possible.

Good acting, interesting normal story and then takes it up to 11 by adding super-human stuff AFTER we're already invested in the cast.

One thing I noticed is the howlers are bland, they had little development in the first movies and to be honest there's not a hell of a lot to go on based on the comics, so Marvel has a fairly clean slate to work with it just depends on whether or not their creative enough to create compelling stories instead of making Captain America references every 5 minutes.

My expectations are low but I hope this show brings quality to Marvels T.V franchise.

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Emperorb777

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I didn't realize Agents of Shield was even good enough to have a spin off. I doubt it'll have a dark tone since Marvel's live action haven't had a dark tone in years.

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Cream_God

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Please give us Namor and Human Torch

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westy206

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When is showing in UK and what channel?

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BlueEcho

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I think this show is going to be awesome. I think that Marvel figured out what does and does not work with AoS and so this is going to be probably an amazing series from start to finish.

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Gjgp27

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There are only two reasons to watch this

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SilverPool

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Edited By SilverPool

Why does Marvel put time into making Agent Carter and Shield shows? Of all the properties you could choose from you pick those?

....Moon Knight for example?

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The Impersonator

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Dark Agent Carter.