The first season of the American television series Agent Carter, which is inspired by the film Captain America: The First Avenger and the Marvel One-Shot short film of the same name, features the character Peggy Carter, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, as she must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark while trying to navigate life as a single woman in 1940s America. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise, and was produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Fazekas & Butters. Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas, and Chris Dingess served as showrunners.
Hayley Atwell reprises her role from the film series and One-Shot as Carter, with James D'Arcy, Chad Michael Murray, Enver Gjokaj, and Shea Whigham also starring. In May 2014, ABC bypassed a pilot, ordering a show based on the One-Shot straight to series for an eight-episode season. Filming took place in Los Angeles from September 2014 to January 2015, and Industrial Light & Magic provided visual effects. The season introduces the origins of several characters and storylines from MCU films, while other characters from the films and Marvel One-Shots also appear.
The season, which aired on ABC from January 6 to February 24, 2015, over 8 episodes, aired during the season two mid-season break of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite steadily dropping viewership, critical response to Agent Carter was positive, with much praise going to Atwell's performance, the series' tone and setting, and its relative separation from the rest of the MCU. The series was renewed for a second season on May 7, 2015.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley
Recurring
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark Lyndsy Fonseca as Angie Martinelli Kyle Bornheimer as Ray Krzeminski Meagen Fay as Miriam Fry Bridget Regan as Dottie Underwood Ralph Brown as Johann Fennhoff
Notable guests
Costa Ronin as Anton Vanko Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Production
Development By September 2013, Marvel Television was developing a series inspired by the Agent Carter One-Shot short film, featuring the Marvel Comics character Peggy Carter. On May 8, 2014, ABC officially ordered the series, bypassing a pilot order, and later confirmed that Agent Carter would air between the 2014 finale and 2015 premiere of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning January 6, 2015. Later in May, star Hayley Atwell stated that the season would consist of eight episodes. Executive producers for the season include Tara Butters, Michelle Fazekas, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Chris Dingess, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Alan Fine, Joe Quesada, Stan Lee, and Jeph Loeb. Butters, Fazekas, and Dingess serve as showrunners on the season.
Writing Markus & McFeely, writers on the Captain America films, had written a script for the first episode by January 2014. They stated in March that the series would be set in 1946, occurring in the middle of the timeline established in the One-Shot. In July, Butters and Fazekas revealed that writing for the rest of the season would begin in August 2014.
In July 2014, Fazekas stated that it was "fabulous from a writing perspective" to have an eight episode order, as "you can plan it and know where you're heading... They're all their own stories and they all have their own drive, but it's sort of building toward a big thing at the end of the eight episodes." Elaborating on this, Atwell said, "it's incredibly tight, the script, which is great. It's fast moving and fast paced but luckily because it's not stretched out of 22 episodes, nothing is diluted. Every line is vital to not only moving the story and the action [along] but also developing the characters." The season's overarching storyline revolves around the chemical weapon Midnight Oil, which is based on the Madbomb of the Captain America comics. The Madbomb was originally considered for use in Captain America: Civil War, before negotiations with actors to adapt the "Civil War" storyline were completed. Also in July, it was revealed that Carter's husband would be explored in the series. However, he was ultimately not explored much in the first season, with McFeely saying, "This was the season where she says goodbye to Steve [Rogers]... In a second season, she could be freer to have those conversations about a life after him."
Speaking about the season's use of 1940s terminology, Fazekas stated that terms like "broad" and "dame" were preferably avoided, while research was done to ensure terms that were used in the series were actually in use during that time, with Fazekas giving the example, "you know what didn't exist in 1946? Smart ass. I looked up the etymology on that, didn't exist in 1946. Turns out it was a term that came around in the 60s. But for instance, I wrote a line that said, "Oh I think someone's yanking your chain." And I had to look it up, did that exist in 1946? And actually it did; it's a mining term that exists from a long time ago. That's our research that we do." Research was also done on radio shows of the time to ensure realism when creating the fictional Captain America Adventure Program, with details discovered and replicated on the series including the use of lobsters and ham to create sound effects for the radio show. The Griffith Hotel, the all-women boarding house where Carter lives, is based on the real-life Barbizon Hotel for Women. Butters felt that while working in the time period, it became an issue to not sound " period". Additionally, it was difficult to write British people from the time in order to avoid stereotypes such as the "typical British butler". However, D'Arcy, who is British, felt the writing staff wrote the British characters better than anyone else he had worked with, despite there not being any British writers on the staff.
Casting
The main cast for the season includes Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, reprising her role from the film series, James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson, Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa, and Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley.
In March 2014, Markus and McFeely stated that Howard Stark would be a recurring character, contingent on Dominic Cooper's involvement. In June 2014, Atwell confirmed that Cooper would be involved with the series. Kyle Bornheimer, Ralph Brown, Meagen Fay, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Bridget Regan also recur as Ray Krzeminski, Johann Fennhoff, Miriam Fry, Angie Martinelli, and Dottie Underwood, respectively, throughout the series.
In November 2014, it was announced that Costa Ronin would portray a younger version of Anton Vanko, who was portrayed in Iron Man 2 by Yevgeni Lazarev. Chris Evans appears as Steve Rogers / Captain America via archive footage from The First Avenger. Neal McDonough and Toby Jones also reprise their roles of Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan and Arnim Zola from previous MCU films, One-Shots, and television series during the season.
Filming Filming began in Los Angeles around late September – early October 2014, with the working title Nylon, and was completed on January 20, 2015. Filming occurred at "every back lot" in Los Angeles, including Universal Studios Lot, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Studios Burbank, with location filming occurring at Los Angeles City Hall, Griffith Park, Royce Canyon, the marina in San Pedro, and the Port of Los Angeles.
Cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, returning from the One-Shot, 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. Beristain uses the Arri Alexa digital camera, along with Leica lenses and silk-stocking diffusion nets, the latter on which he recalled "I had last used in the 1980s in England on videos and commercials. I remembered that they were fantastic. In combination with the Leica lenses, the look is very classic, very much like a 1940s film. When I saw it, I said, 'This is absolutely Marvel,' and [D'Esposito] agreed." For the series' lighting, Beristain again mixed modern and traditional, using LED fixtures to recreate classic Hollywood lighting. He called his lighting of Atwell "an homage to the great cinematographers who lit Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly."
Visual effects Sheena Duggal, who served as visual effects supervisor on the Agent Carter One-Shot, returned to the position for the series, while the companies Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Base FX created the visual effects. Work by ILM includes the creation of backdrops for the series, including matte paintings, depicting 1940s New York. DNeg TV also created visual effects, with ILM coordinating with them and Base to maintain a "seamless workflow". The season had 1,038 visual effects shots, with multiple episodes being worked on in post-production simultaneously to complete the work. In addition to all the set extensions required to depict the period through green screen and matte paintings, Duggal also noted difficulty in simulating the imploding bombs and creating a fully CG truck that drives off a cliff.
Music In September 2014, Christopher Lennertz officially signed on to compose for the series, having previously composed the Agent Carter One-Shot. 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. In his research of the music of the time period, Lennertz learned that jazz was shifting from big band to smaller ensembles, and bebop was being introduced. This allowed him to incorporate trumpets in his scores, to harken to the time period and because they are "also very sneaky, and it lends itself to espionage". Lennertz used the alto flute to capture "Carter's aura", saying, "It feels like a strong woman's voice, especially as she's sneaking around....it also has that spy quality." Additionally, Lennertz was able to reorchestrate "Star Spangled Man" for the season, which is originally by Alan Menken for Captain America: The First Avenger, and introduced a folk choral piece performed by a Russian men's choir during "The Iron Ceiling". A soundtrack album for the season was released on iTunes on December 11, 2015.
All music composed by Christopher Lennertz.
Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins Markus, talking about the series place in the greater architecture of the MCU in January 2015 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." The season introduces the Red Room program, which would eventually produce Natasha Romanoff, who appears in multiple MCU films portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. Although the origins of the program are explored, the term "Black Widow" is never used in the series. Agent Carter also explores the origins of the Hydra-led Winter Soldier program, as seen by the end tag in "Valediction" when Arnim Zola approaches Faustus about mind control. The law firm Goodman, Kurtzberg, and Holliway is mentioned, with a modern-day version of the law firm, Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, and Holliway, appearing in the Marvel Studios Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022).
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