text: agent carter ( tv series ) marvel 's agent carter , or simply 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 ( mcu ) , sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise . the series was produced by abc studios , marvel television , and f & b fazekas & butters , with tara butters , michele fazekas , and chris dingess serving as showrunners . 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 . development on a series inspired by the agent carter short film had begun by september 2013 , with atwell 's involvement confirmed in january 2014 . that may , abc bypassed a pilot , ordering the show straight to series , with james d 'arcy , chad michael murray , and enver gjokaj starring alongside atwell ; they are joined by shea whigham for the first season . the series introduces the origins of several characters and storylines from mcu films , while other characters from the films also appear . the first season , consisting of eight episodes , originally aired from january 6 to february 24 , 2015 , while the second season , consisting of 10 episodes , originally aired from january 19 to march 1 , 2016 . both seasons aired during mid - season breaks of marvel 's agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. despite a positive critical response , the series saw steadily decreasing - to - low viewership , and on may 12 , 2016 , abc canceled agent carter . premise the first season takes place in 1946 , with peggy carter having to balance the routine office work she does for the strategic scientific reserve ( ssr ) in new york city with secretly assisting howard stark , who finds himself framed for supplying deadly weapons to enemies of the united states . carter is assisted by stark 's butler , edwin jarvis , to find those responsible and dispose of the weapons . in the second season , carter moves from new york city to los angeles to deal with the threats of the new atomic age by the secret empire in the aftermath of world war ii , gaining new friends , a new home , and a potential new love interest . cast and characters hayley atwell as peggy carter : an ssr agent originally stuck doing administrative work . 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 . butters has said that carter 's " superpower is the fact that other people underestimate her . and she often uses that to her advantage , because she doesn 't have . " 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 — even before he took the serum and became captain america . she knew his character and she saw a kindred spirit in him . so i think she 's grieving the loss of him but she 's also determined to make sure that his work wasn 't in vain . that gives her a tremendous amount of determination to carry on despite the obstacles that she comes across . " gabriella graves portrays a young carter . james d 'arcy as edwin jarvis : howard stark 's butler and ally to carter , who will eventually be a tutor to tony stark and inspire his j.a.r.v.i.s. artificial intelligence . atwell referred to carter 's relationship with jarvis as the series ' " comic relief " , and said " i think , from her point of view , she doesn 't need any help . but she needs someone who is in contact with howard to help kind of run this mission . so they have this very witty banter back and forth ... they both have that wit and that satire . their language is a game of chess " . 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 [ ing ] psychopaths " . he did not study paul bettany 's performance as j.a.r.v.i.s. when approaching the character . chad michael murray as jack thompson : a war veteran and agent with the ssr , described as chauvinistic and " chest - puffing " . murray compared the character to indiana jones , and stated 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 . " murray also noted that , unlike his character on one tree hill , thompson does not serve as the " moral compass " , which meant that he wouldn 't be " confined to a box " and would instead be allowed to " really play things up and do what 's unexpected " . for the second season , thompson is made chief of the east coast ssr office . enver gjokaj as daniel sousa : a war veteran who is an agent with the ssr and experiences prejudice due to his crippled leg , allowing him to relate to carter . " he was a soldier , and he had been very active all his life , and now he has to figure out how to use his brains , how to try to be smart , " gjokaj explained of the character . " he accepts his injury , he accepts his compromised status in society ... peggy says , ‘ forget this . i 'm peggy carter . i 'm going to do something else . ’ i think that 's the difference between the two of them . " considering a potentially romantic relationship between sousa and carter , gjokaj said , " i think there ’ s definitely a situation where ... if she hadn 't dated captain america , he might ask her out for a drink . it ’ s like if your new girlfriend dated ryan gosling . it ’ s going to make you sweat a bit . " for the second season , sousa is made chief of the west coast ssr office . shea whigham as roger dooley : the ssr chief who oversees agents carter , thompson , and sousa , until he dies to save his fellow ssr agents at the end of season one . unlike many of the other agents , whigham believes that dooley does respect carter , saying " i think he likes her . i think he cares deeply . i 'm not sure that he can always show that , but i think you 'll see that he cares deeply about carter . and these are things that keep him up at night , as well as the other boys , when i send them out on missions . " the character was always intended to die during the first season 's penultimate episode , to help build stakes for the series given that " everyone knows peggy lives " , so from the beginning whigham was only hired for the seven required episodes . episodes season 1 ( 2015 ) season 2 ( 2016 ) production development a potential agent carter series was initially brought up in july 2013 by louis d 'esposito , after a screening of his agent carter one - shot at san diego comic - con. by september , marvel television was developing a series inspired by the short film , featuring peggy carter , and was in search of a writer for the series . in january 2014 , abc entertainment group president paul lee confirmed that the show was in development , and revealed that tara butters and michele fazekas would act as the series ' showrunners . chris dingess also serves as a showrunner . in march 2014 , christopher markus & stephen mcfeely , writers of the captain america films , stated that they envisioned the series , which had not yet been greenlit , as a limited series of approximately 13 episodes . by april 2014 , there were indications that the series would be ordered straight to series , bypassing a pilot order , and would air between the late 2014 and early 2015 portions of agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. , if that series got a second season renewal . on may 8 , 2014 , abc officially ordered the series for eight episodes , with executive producers butters , fazekas , markus , mcfeely , dingess , kevin feige , louis d 'esposito , alan fine , joe quesada , stan lee , and jeph loeb . the series was renewed for a second season on may 7 , 2015 , of 10 episodes . in march 2016 , fazekas noted that the producers felt " bad " about the chances for a third season due to the series ' low viewership , adding she " would love to see it live on , even if it ’ s in some other form , digital or whatever . i doubt that there ’ s a netflix play for it . " she also added that abc wanted some sort of conclusion to the series , and so the writers and producers would find a way to conclude the lingering plot threads in some form if the series was not renewed . on may 12 , 2016 , abc canceled the series . atwell had stated on potential further seasons , " we think that there could be more to come .... the [ second season ] finale doesn ’ t suggest that that ’ s it and they live happily ever after ; that ’ s the end . we know that ’ s not the case . they ’ ve done it in a very clever way which wraps up and that gives the audience a very satisfying conclusion but they ’ re not quite finishing it and leaving it there . " on the location for a third season , fazekas stated that moving the series to london had been a possibility , an idea that creators markus and mcfeely had early on . fazekas added , " you can put the show anywhere , because it ’ s spies . [ the location is ] all going to be determined by what story we want to tell . i loved [ los angeles ] . i loved how it looked , i loved how it looked on peggy . we would be very happy to do another l.a. season , but we ’ re not married to it . " fazekas also said that seeds for a third season had been planted all throughout the second , and that the end of the second season , with someone shooting thompson and taking the m. carter file , was " very much tied to a third season arc " , with the shooter and their reason for taking the file already determined . atwell added that the third season would have gone " further back into [ carter 's ] past ” while having " a possible kind of twist ... into something to do with [ her ] family . " she also added that more insight would have been provided on carter 's brother , michael . writing markus and mcfeely stated in march 2014 that the series would be set in 1946 initially , occurring in the middle of the timeline established in the one - shot , and would focus on one case for carter . additional seasons would then advance a year and examine a new case . despite working on captain america : civil war at the same time , markus and mcfeely remained involved with the series after writing the first script . the showrunners turned to several different influences outside of marvel in developing the series , including raiders of the lost ark , l.a. confidential , and the works of author james ellroy . elaborating on deviating from the comics , fazekas said , for example , " if we 're using a minor character or a bad guy from an old comic book , we don 't have to adhere to what that character was in that comic book from 1945 . because there are so many different iterations of a specific character , you can 't be true to every single one . " on the time periods the series could potentially explore following the first season and leading to the character seen in captain america : the winter soldier , atwell said , " i think the great thing about the fact that i ’ ve already played her at the end of her life means that we know ... that ’ s what ’ s great about the situation we have now , is that we have an opportunity , if the show does go into second and third and fourth and fifth [ seasons ] , we know that we can explore all of these aspects of her character because we know she lives such a long life and she ’ s had a fulfilled life . i think what ’ s going to start happening in season 1 is seeds are going to be planted as to what happens in her personal life — and yet it ’ s still open to the possibility of new men coming into her life , deepening relationships with the men that we discover in season 1 . obviously , the era is 1946 but in the second , third , fourth , fifth season — if it goes onto that — we can explore different time periods . we can explore the late forties , the early fifties , the sixties , the seventies , the eighties , up until present day , so it ’ s very exciting because of that . " however , butters clarified that future seasons would likely stay in the same time period , possibly changing location to a place like hollywood or europe , in order to stick to a pre - s.h.i.e.l.d. setting to avoid competing with agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. this was the case with the second season , which moved the series to 1947 los angeles . casting atwell , who portrayed carter in captain america : the first avenger , captain america : the winter soldier , and the agent carter short film , expressed interest in returning as the character in october 2013 , before lee confirmed her involvement in january 2014 . that august , chad michael murray and enver gjokaj were cast as ssr agents jack thompson and daniel sousa , respectively , while james d 'arcy was cast the next month as edwin jarvis , the character who would eventually inspire the artificial intelligence j.a.r.v.i.s. from the mcu films . shea whigham was also cast , as ssr chief roger dooley . atwell , d 'arcy , gjokaj , and murray returned for the second season . design costumes the costume designer for the series is giovanna ottobre - melton , who felt comfortable with the series ' period setting after spending months researching american styles in the 1940s for the 2013 television series mob city . she noted that " many comic books were all blended by the color , style , and fabrics " from 1940s new york . due to the large amount of action in the series , fabrics " with the feel and texture of the 1940s " had to be sourced in large quantities , to allow for the creation of four , five , or more of each costume . ottobre - melton 's process " for each episode , [ is to ] read the script first , and then search for historic photos that relate to what the episode is about . afterwards i chose the fabrics , and then begin to design the outfits . " props when creating the gadgets for the series , the writers noted the need to combine the period setting with the influence of howard stark , who opens the door to " things that are fantastic for the time period " . they worked closely with the props department to develop technology that appears " both retro and futuristic at the same time " , with fazekas explaining that the goal was to avoid a science fiction look , so the fantastical aspects were reserved solely for function while the aesthetic was kept within the realms of that time period . filming filming for the series took place in los angeles , with the story 's location shifting from new york city to los angeles with the second season to capitalize on this . gabriel beristain , cinematographer for the one - shot and the first season of the series , used a combination of modern digital technology and traditional analog techniques to replicate the feel of classic films that are set in the 1940s , but to also have the convenience and consistency of modern technology , such as using the arri alexa digital camera , along with leica lenses and silk - stocking diffusion nets . edward j. pei took over as cinematographer for the second season . stunt coordinator casey o 'neill , who also worked on the one - shot and captain america : the winter soldier , incorporated the specific fighting styles of the characters , such as the more " cia - trained " fighting of carter or the more acrobatic , " black widow " -inspired style of antagonist dottie underwood . visual effects sheena duggal serves as visual effect supervisor , returning in the same capacity from the agent carter one - shot , with the visual effects for the series created by industrial light & magic ( ilm ) , base fx , and later dneg tv . duggal worked closest with ilm , who coordinated with base and dneg to ensure a " seamless workflow " . the majority of the series ' visual effects work focuses on set extensions to depict the period setting , as well as the more fantastical aspects such as howard stark 's inventions , or zero matter and jason wilkes ' intangibility in the second season . music in june 2014 , christopher lennertz , who composed the music for the agent carter one - shot , talked about potentially working on the series , saying , d 'esposito " told me last summer at comic - con that there was a possibility this was going to become a series . and he said that if he was going to be involved , he wanted me to be involved , too . " in september 2014 , lennertz officially signed on to compose for the series . lennertz combined all the different style elements of the show in the music , such as mixing jazz and period elements , with orchestra and electronic elements . lennertz said , the music is " always done from a sense of being sort of in control and savvy and clever , rather than just being strong or just having a superpower or sort of being so much further along than anybody else physically . part of it was just trying to make it that she ’ s just smarter than everybody else . she ’ s got such command over so many of these situations , and that was the most important thing was to give her that personality . " a soundtrack album for the first season was released on itunes on december 11 , 2015 , and the single " whatcha gonna do ( it 's up to you ) " from the second season was released on march 18 , 2016 . marvel cinematic universe tie - ins because carter originates from the films , marvel studios co - presidents feige and d 'esposito " are very invested in this and they 've been really collaborative and very generous with their world " . markus , talking about the series ' place in the greater architecture of the mcu , later said " you really only need to drop the tiniest bit of hint and its connected . you don ’ t have to go , " howard stark 's wearing the same pants that tony wears ! " ... everything is enhanced just by the knowledge that its all connected . " butters said , " we always want to feel like you see us as a piece of [ the mcu ] . but because of our time period , we kind of are on our own a little bit . " in july 2014 , fazekas talked about how the series would relate to the one - shot , saying , " the short really is the basis for the series . [ carter ] ' s working at ssr , post - war ... if you think of the short as sort of the end of the series , the series would be leading up to that moment where she gets assigned to s.h.i.e.l.d. " markus reiterated this in january 2015 , but added that " we all agree and understand that [ keeping continuity with the short is ] going to get tougher if we continue " making the series . the first season introduces the origins of the black widow and winter soldier programs , which both appear in several mcu films , while the second season shows the discovery of the darkforce ( known as zero matter in the series ) , which previously appeared in agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. and has ties to doctor strange . release broadcast agent carter airs on abc in the united states , ctv in canada , and tv2 in new zealand . in october 2014 , channel 4 , the channel that airs agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. in the united kingdom , stated that they did not " have any current plans [ to air ] agent carter " . in june 2015 , fox uk purchased the broadcast rights for the united kingdom , with the series premiering on july 12 , 2015 . in february 2016 , the series was announced to air on in australia . home media the complete first season became available on blu - ray and dvd on september 18 , 2015 , as an amazon.com exclusive . reception ratings maureen ryan of variety blamed both seasons ' low viewership on " the questionable scheduling decisions " made by then abc president paul lee , saying that the series " has received lackluster promotion , especially [ for its second season ] . the botched rollout of season two included a changed premiere date and episodes that were difficult to access in advance on marvel ’ s dreadful media site . capping the mishandling is the fact that the full first season was only made available on days before season two began , which frustrated viewers who might have wanted to jump on board in advance . " critical response the review aggregator website rotten tomatoes reported a 97 % approval rating with an average rating of 7 . 9 / 10 based on 34 reviews for the first season . the website 's consensus reads , " focusing on peggy carter as a person first and an action hero second makes marvel 's agent carter a winning , stylish drama with bursts of excitement and an undercurrent of cheeky fun " . metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 27 reviews , indicating " generally favorable reviews " . the second season scored an 80 % approval rating with an average score of 7 . 9 / 10 based on 15 reviews . the website 's consensus reads , " a move from new york to hollywood gives agent carter new territory to explore , as the series continues to search for a storyline as dynamic as its heroine " . analysis arguing for the renewal of the series for a third season following its low viewership , ryan said that " letting the show die would be a serious mistake , for the network and for the bigger disney - abc conglomerate ... these days , entertainment properties have to be viewed not just through the lens of their ratings ( admittedly weak for agent carter ) . they have to be evaluated within the context of the overall value they bring to any entertainment colossus , and what agent carter adds to disney - abc is simply too valuable to give up ... [ bringing ] something different to the company 's superhero portfolio . " she suggested if abc did not renew the series for broadcast , that it should explore other opportunities , such as debuting on its online watch abc app , or being sold to netflix , where " fans of super - heroic storytelling already flock to " and agent carter 's " status as a period piece — which may have harmed it on broadcast — could be a real draw for netflix viewers " . ryan also felt marvel " could copy what cbs is doing with star trek " by creating a subscription service for a monthly fee , where consumers could access marvel 's films and televisions shows " as well as premium exclusives like a third season of agent carter " . ryan concluded , " a third agent carter season could help solidify marvel 's standing not just with female fans , but with everyone who appreciates excellent and adventurous storytelling . " when the series was canceled shortly after the release of captain america : civil war , in which carter dies , meagan damore of comic book resources felt that " for all intents and purposes " carter had " effectively been phased out of the marvel cinematic universe " , and the universe had subsequently lost " a wonderful role model and ... inspiration " to fans of the character and series . damore lamented the fact that the second season 's cliffhanger ending had been left unresolved , and that viewers would never get the chance to see carter 's " happy ending " , despite knowing she gets one , leaving the character 's " fate unfulfilled , languishing in the obscurity of ' what could have beens ' " . she also noted that marvel had now lost " the opportunity to show several prominent mcu events , not the least of which is the founding of s.h.i.e.l.d. " , and added that despite making " leaps and bounds for women in the mcu , the same [ could not ] be said for people of color , " wishing the series had addressed asian american women like hazel ying lee , one of 38 women airforce service pilots who died in the line of duty , or black women like harriet ida and frances wills , the first two black members of the united states naval reserve . accolades potential spin - off podcast in march 2015 , butters stated that there had been discussions about creating a podcast with thrilling adventure hour co - creator and writer ben blacker , centered around the fictional captain america adventure program radio show that is depicted during the series ' first season . butters said that well - received segments had not been part of the original pitch to marvel , and noted that a second season renewal for the series would help the real world podcast 's chances . she stated that the potential episodes would be " little fifteen - minute storylines " .