Yahoo News Hayley Atwell recounts 'frustrating' Multiverse of Madness cameo: It didn't 'serve Peggy very well'
After years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hayley Atwell enters a new action franchise this week with her role in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One. Looking back on her time with the MCU, Atwell is expressing disappointment with her most recent appearance as Peggy Carter.
After making her debut in Captain America: The First Avenger as a capable military officer and the original love of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Atwell's Peggy Carter continued to pop off. She headlined two seasons of Agent Carter and appeared at the end of Avengers: Endgame to bring Steve's story full circle. Atwell then voiced Peggy in the first episode of the animated series What If...?, which posed an alternate world in which she became a supersoldier instead of Steve (inspired by Marvel comics and mobile games). She then got to bring Captain Carter into live action with a brief cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — but it wasn't totally glorious, because Peggy and the rest of the Illuminati got brutally killed in short order by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
"I'm like, 'That wasn't my choice!'" Atwell told Josh Horowitz on the new episode of his podcast Happy Sad Confused. "When she was like, 'I could do this all day' and then followed by she's immediately cut in half by a frisbee. And the audience being like, 'She can't do it all day. Apparently you can't, so, egg on your face.' That doesn't really serve Peggy very well."
Marvel Studios Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'
Atwell went on to say that recording the episodes of What If...? was a more fun experience for her as an actor.
"I felt like I had much more to do in the What If...? animation series," she said. "I mean, any actor will tell you, to be able to go into a booth in effectively your pajamas and do an animation is great fun because you're focused on the voice as the instrument and your main performative tool."
By contrast, "it felt like a frustrating moment in Strange."
Fans of Atwell should be happy to know she has more to do in the new Mission: Impossible movie than in either What If...? or Multiverse of Madness. She plays a thief named Grace whose life changes after she crosses paths with IMF superspy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise).
When EW spoke with Atwell about her role in Mission: Impossible, she shared similar sentiments about her recent outings as Peggy.
"I liked the fight scenes," Atwell told EW. "It was great to see her in that outfit, seemingly taking a more active role. But it was a very underwhelming moment."
Additional reporting by Clark Collis.
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