A Canceled Marvel TV Show Had A Big Impact On The MCU

We're coming up on two decades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Depending on your relationship to the franchise, that will either feel wild or leave you baffled that the property hasn't already passed that mark. Sometimes, it feels like we've always been living in this post-"Iron Man" world — that the age of the cinematic universe is all there ever was. But even within the MCU itself, there have been various eras, with lots of experiments you may have forgotten Marvel Studios ever attempted.

Remember "The Incredible Hulk?" Remember when the MCU tried to ship Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)? And then there was the Netflix era of the "Defenders" shows — some of the most critically acclaimed entries in the entire franchise, some of which have since been brought back for new chapters on Disney+. Of course, those weren't the only MCU TV shows prior to the rise of Disney+. ABC had its own run with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," which aired for seven whole seasons, along with a much shorter-lived series that most fans have almost certainly forgotten about: "Agent Carter."

Set in the wake of World War II, the show follows Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in her work as an American intelligence operative. Atwell is great on the show, as she is in "Captain America: The First Avenger," but that didn't stop it from being canceled after just two seasons and 18 episodes. Still, the influence of "Agent Carter" can still be felt on the larger MCU, most directly in the form of Eric Pearson. The writer established himself at Marvel Studios with the ABC series, and he's since delivered back-to-back hits for the franchise, reinvigorating it at a time when the Marvel property has been struggling.

You may not know Pearson's name, but he's been one of the most consistent voices in MCU writers rooms for over a decade. His earliest screenwriting credits come from a series of Marvel One-Shots, i.e. short films that were included with the physical media packages for older MCU films as bonus features. His success in that arena eventually got him a more steady job writing episodes across both seasons of "Agent Carter." The show got great reviews, with season 1 landing a stunning 96% aggregate rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Throughout the series, Pearson also had a key role as a story editor, in addition to writing several episodes personally.

After the show was canceled, Pearson stayed on at Marvel, doing touch up work on "Ant-Man" and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" before getting another proper writing credit on "Thor: Ragnarok" — itself a massive hit for the studio.

While Pearson has done additional work on a number of Marvel films in the interim, on top of writing popular movies in other franchises like "Transformers One" and "Godzilla vs. Kong," his biggest points of relevance for the MCU as a whole have come in 2025. In a year when DC has successfully relaunched its own cinematic universe, and with diminishing returns both at the box office and on streaming having put the MCU in questionable territory, Pearson has co-written back-to-back hits for Marvel Studios in "Thunderbolts*" and "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

While Marvels has had plenty of higher-profile creatives come and go through different projects, its regulars like Pearson who've often provided the consistency that — even through less popular eras of the franchise — has kept the MCU a cultural staple.

Despite strong reviews and a bonafide star in Atwell, "Agent Carter" didn't last nearly as long as "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Unfortunately, the series' critical praise didn't lead to especially high viewership, which may have been due in part to the story's relative distance from the larger MCU. If you weren't a Marvel fan at all, you'd likely avoid the show, thinking that it would require prior knowledge of the franchise. And if you were an MCU loyalist, there wasn't as much there to connect you to the upcoming films as, say, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Agent Carter" was canceled in May 2016, just days after the original "Captain America" trilogy concluded on the big screen with the release of "Civil War." Atwell landed on her feet, though, and immediately went on to star in the legal drama series "Conviction," which was also on ABC. She's since reprised her Peggy Carter role as a voice actor for "Marvel's What If...?" and on the big screen in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," in addition to voicing Lara Croft in the Netflix animated series "Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft" and playing Grace in the last two "Mission: Impossible" movies.

Up next, Atwell will reportedly return as Peggy Carter in "Avengers: Doomsday." It just goes to show that, even now, "Agent Carter" continues to have a sizable impact on the MCU.