Hayley Atwell May Not Be Returning as Peggy Carter in AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY After All

While it was previously reported by the trades that Hayley Atwell would be returning as Peggy Carter in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning star is pushing back on the idea.

In a recent interview with Collider, Atwell straight-up denied the news… or at least acted like she’d never heard of it.

“Really? Who… on Reddit? Who’s doing that? Who’s saying that?” she said, when asked about her reported return.

Now, this could be Marvel’s usual cloak-and-dagger approach to casting, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time actors have dodged direct questions about their MCU involvement. And let’s not forget, Marvel Studios reportedly gave actors strict instructions to keep quiet if their name wasn’t part of the official Doomsday announcement.

So is Atwell just playing along with Marvel’s spoiler lockdown, or is this genuinely news to her? It’s hard to believe that this is the first time she’s heard this since news of her casting initially dropped six months ago.

To complicate things further, she’s recently been vocal about how much potential Peggy Carter, previously saying:

"There are so many things that she could do, there’s so much more I feel I can bring to a character because I’ve developed as time’s gone on.

“What’s so great about having time behind you and having had a 20-year career so far is the development of skill, and I think there’s so much more that Peggy can do. She’s very much an underserved character."

"When she says ‘I know my value and everyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter,’ it’s because she hasn’t been given the platform that she knows she deserves and that she’s really capable of doing in the world.

“And so I just think there is just so much more that she can do, and I think she speaks to a modern time, so to be able to take her to that next level as Captain Carter would be phenomenal. Especially with all my Mission: Impossible training. I am ready, let’s go!"

So, let’s break this down… Atwell says she’s not involved, but she’s also talking about how ready she is. And she’s publicly enthusiastic about evolving Peggy Carter, especially in her Captain Carter form. Not to mention, the multiverse is open.

Could this all be part of Marvel’s calculated misdirection? Possibly. Chris Evans has also played coy about a potential return, and we’ve seen how that plays out before (ahem Andrew Garfield, anyone?).

Seriously, though, it’s hard to imagine Marvel skipping the opportunity to bring Peggy Carter back for something as massive as Doomsday

For now, we’ll have to wait and see.