List of Agent Carter characters
Agent Carter is an American television series created for ABC by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, inspired by the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger, and the 2013 Marvel One-Shot short film of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise. The first season, consisting of eight episodes, originally aired from January 6 to February 24, 2015, while the second season, consisting of ten episodes, originally aired from January 19 to March 1, 2016. Agent Carter was canceled by ABC on May 12, 2016.
The series features the Marvel Comics character Peggy Carter, with Hayley Atwell reprising her role from the film series and One-Shot, as she must balance life as a secret agent with that of a single woman in 1940s America. Also starring is James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, butler to Howard Stark who joins Carter for her missions, developing a strong platonic relationship with her. The pair are joined by series regulars Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson and Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa, as well as Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley for the first season. Whigham signed on to the series knowing that his character, Dooley, would be killed off during the first season. Dominic Cooper portrays Stark, reprising his role from the films and One-Shot in a recurring capacity for the series. Agent Carter also introduces the origins of several characters and storylines from MCU films: Bridget Regan recurs as Dottie Underwood, an early product of the Black Widow program; and Ralph Brown recurs as Johann Fennhoff, the pioneer of Hydra's mind control techniques.
In addition to original characters, the series' cast also includes further characters based on various Marvel Comics properties, as well as more characters crossing over from the MCU films. The following list includes Agent Carters main cast, as determined by its producers, as well as all guest stars deemed to have had recurring roles throughout the series, and a supplementary list of other noteworthy guests.
Overview
Main characters
Peggy Carter
Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Carter is an officer with the Strategic Scientific Reserve who worked with Captain America during World War II, falling in love with him before he seemingly sacrificed himself to stop the Nazi-division Hydra. Following the end of the war, Carter is working in a secretarial role despite her status as an agent. Approached by Howard Stark, whom she had also worked with during the war, to help clear his name after being framed for selling weapons to the USSR, Carter agrees to go behind the backs of her superiors. Her treason is eventually discovered by Agent Daniel Sousa, but she is let off when she helps stop the Russians. She goes on to earn the respect of her coworkers, instigate the defeat of Whitney Frost, and start a relationship with Sousa.Atwell, who portrayed Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the Agent Carter short film, expressed interest in reprising the role for the series in October 2013; ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee confirmed her involvement in January 2014. Carter is the first female character to headline a standalone story as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ahead of popular comic characters such as Natasha Romanoff and Carol Danvers. Unlike other major Marvel heroes, Carter does not have any superpowers, instead the writers "always said her superpower is the fact that other people underestimate her. And she often uses that to her advantage". Atwell said it was "thrilling" to explore "the backdrop of this male-dominated world, where women are still in the workforce, unspoken for and struggling to find a place outside the home" and how it affects Carter, who must deal with this along with the missions she receives. For Carter's costumes, though some vintage pieces were used, most of her outfits were custom made to accommodate the scripted action scenes. Costume designer Giovanna Ottobre-Melton gave the outfits an "hourglass style with strength in the tailoring and defined shoulders, but not overly exaggerated." For the character's tactical gear, World War II underground military looks were referenced. Gabriella Graves portrays a young Carter.
Speaking about the influence that the apparent death of Steve Rogers has on Carter, Atwell explained that "It's only been a year and she's grieving him and I think what keeps her going is he was the greatest person she ever knew... she's also determined to make sure that his work wasn't in vain." Following the first season, Atwell noted that Carter did not "win everyone's respect", with Jack Thompson taking credit for her actions, for example, but "she knows her value so she doesn't need that praise". For the second season, executive producer Michele Fazekas explained that after Carter "put a lot of things emotionally to bed", such as letting go of Captain America, she is now "more open to looking at her life and figuring out, does she want a relationship?" Fazekas added that Carter would start to realize that "not everybody has her ideals", even in the SSR.
The A.V. Club named Atwell's performance as one of the "Best Individual Performances" of 2015. Atwell was also nominated for Best Actress in a Television Series at the 41st Saturn Awards, but lost the award to Caitriona Balfe of Outlander.
Edwin Jarvis
Edwin Jarvis was charged with treason during the war after he forged the signature of his superior officer in an attempt to save the woman that would become his wife, Ana. Saved from this by Howard Stark, Jarvis becomes Stark's butler and is eventually offered to Carter as support for her mission to clear Stark's name. Befriending Carter, Jarvis came to enjoy his missions with her and chose to continue to help her with missions unrelated to Stark, such as the fight against Whitney Frost. For this, Ana became involved as well, until she was seriously injured by Frost. In retaliation, Jarvis unsuccessfully attempted to murder Frost.Edwin Jarvis was announced to be in the series in July 2014. A butler to the Stark family in the original comics, Jarvis was first adapted in the MCU films as an artificial intelligence named J.A.R.V.I.S., created by Tony Stark. The official tie-in comic Iron Man 2: Public Identity explained that a more comic-accurate version of the character did exist in the MCU, with the butler Jarvis serving as a mentor to a young Tony and eventually inspiring his A.I.; the Jarvis seen in Agent Carter is a younger version of this butler, working for Howard Stark before Tony is born. D'Arcy was cast in the role in September 2014. Fazekas, explaining the introduction and development of Jarvis in the series, stated that "some of it has come from the comics and some of it we've developed ourselves. Some of it is influenced by James D'Arcy himself and his strengths." D'Arcy was initially nervous about portraying Jarvis's comedic side, given his history of "predominantly play psychopaths", and did not study Paul Bettany's performance as J.A.R.V.I.S. when approaching the character. Ottobre-Melton explained, in terms of costume design, that "Jarvis is a tweed suit man. He has a large responsibility handling Howard Stark's affairs, and needs to look polished at all times. He's a well-paid employee who can afford custom-made 3-piece suits, and has a British sensibility, so we put him in a finely tailored bold black and grey Herringbone suit."
Atwell referred to Carter's relationship with Jarvis as the series' comic relief, while Fazekas called their relationship "the center relationship of the show". Executive producer Tara Butters compared the relationship to that of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the early seasons of The X-Files, where "you really believed they cared about each other but it wasn't sexual. That was very refreshing." Fazekas discussed giving Jarvis a major character arc in the second season, saying that he "really got a taste for adventure with Peggy in the first season, so, when she comes back into his life, he's so happy because he's so bored with being Howard Stark's butler... what that starts is a really interesting story for him, which is, how much did he really understand about what Peggy does? For him, it's like a fun diversion, even though he's in danger... we will see in Jarvis' story how he grows to understand that and where he comes out in the end. It will have a cost for him, and it will have an impact on his relationship with Peggy". D'Arcy reprised the role of Jarvis in the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Endgame, and voiced the character in the third season of What If...?. He also will portray the human form of J.A.R.V.I.S. in VisionQuest.
Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson is a war veteran and agent with the SSR who accidentally killed surrendering enemy soldiers, but hid the mistake, instead being praised as a hero. He takes the credit for Carter's work in defeating Leviathan, and is promoted to Chief of the New York SSR office. Thompson is shot by a mysterious person looking to take a redacted case file he has on "M. Carter".Murray was cast in August 2014. He noted that, unlike his character on One Tree Hill, Thompson does not serve as the "moral compass" of the series, which meant that he would not be "confined to a box" and would instead be allowed to "really play things up and do what's unexpected." The costumes for the SSR agents in the series are meant to be distinctive to help explain their characters: Thompson wears single breasted suits with suspenders. The second season ends on a cliffhanger, with Thompson being shot by an unknown character. The executive producers insisted that Thompson was not necessarily dead, and that his fate would be revealed in a potential third season.
Murray described the character as chauvinistic and "chest-puffing", and compared him to Indiana Jones, stating that "he's working his way up to become the head of the SSR. His goal in life is to just be great at his job. So he has a large chip on his shoulder, which gives him an attitude." Butters stated that "The problem with Thompson is, he's such an opportunist, and he so wants to succeed above all other things, that he sometimes makes bad choices. I think he's not a bad guy, he just gets blinded by ambition." On the character's second season arc, Fazekas reiterated that he "puts his ambition and his ego over other things, over sometimes doing the right thing, and he often doesn't care who gets hurt or who is upset about it... he actually decides to do the right thing in the end at great cost to himself."