Since her introduction in Captain America: The First Avenger, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) has become a beloved and notable part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character having now popped up in multiple Marvel movies -- it’s worth noting that Atwell and Anthony Mackie are the only two actors who were in both of Marvel’s 2015 films, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man -- and, of course, her own TV series, Marvel’s Agent Carter

Hayley Atwell in Marvel's Agent Carter.

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With Agent Carter having kicked off its second season last week, I got on the phone with Atwell, who’s back in London since Agent Carter: Season 2 wrapped, to discuss the new developments in Peggy’s life, now that she’s moved to 1947 Los Angeles. Our lengthy conversation included chatting about the introduction of the Marvel “Darkforce” (or “Zero Matter”) on the series, Peggy’s relationships with Jarvis (James D’Arcy), Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper - who returns in this week’s episode) and Season 2 additions Jason Wilkes (Reggie Austin) and Whitney Frost (Wynn Everett) and much more about Peggy Carter’s ongoing story.We also chatted about the character’s durability and whether we might ever see Peggy interact with the son of her good friend Howard, Tony Stark.Well, it's certainly not what she signed up for when she agreed to go to California. I think she was going over there with the understanding that she might get a boyfriend out of it. Then she gets there and realizes that's all a shattered illusion. [Laughs] She faces the reality that Sousa's unavailable. Then she's presented with this mission that seems on the surface pretty straightforward, and it very quickly spirals, as you see, into this surreal world of what is called Zero Matter. But she doesn't understand the nature of it, and it's something that's completely beyond her own knowledge or understanding. But luckily she has the dashing Jason Wilkes who, with his science knowledge, is able to try to shed some light on what it is that's going on. You have this kind of new, surreal, bizarre world, which adds a lot more drama and tension to her mission and flips her world upside down again.I think the great thing with Peggy is that she's always on survival mode. She's very present to the circumstances that she finds herself in. She's never complacent. So when something like this happens, she charges ahead straight away and embraces the challenge, and explores it kind of like an archaeologist, and really goes into it. And then you have the dashing Wilkes, who's beside her all the way, which makes life a lot easier to look at. [Laughs]Yeah, so you do see Wilkes again, but in a different way. He's changed, to say the least. He's really different. [Laughs] Peggy said in Season 1, to Jarvis, "Anyone who gets close to me ends up in extreme danger." It's very hard for her to be intimate with anyone, because she risks hurting them and being alone again. So it's happened again, and I think she feels tremendous guilt that she got Wilkes into this situation, so she's playing out her remorse and trying to help and save him in any way that she can. And then Howard coming into her life… You know, one thing that's great with Howard is that he's totally unreliable because he's a complete, floundering womanizer, but Peggy utterly adores him. She doesn't agree with the choices that he makes in his personal life, and certainly wouldn't want to live by them, but she also knows that she might be the only woman, really, in his life that he actually respects, and he probably doesn't understand why... Because she's in a skirt, so yeah! But I think there is a genuine respect for each other. Because of that, he comes into her life, and he's incredibly useful to her. The fact that he is extremely powerful and rich means he has the means to help in any way that he possibly can. And he's also very, very intelligent. So he has a lot to offer, and he plays a pivotal role in the unfolding of this mission as it goes along. Also, a lot of the comic relief on the show is Howard Stark, and also Jarvis. They're just very, very funny.Oh, it's a joy. It's really lovely, because I think the show knows the genre that it is, and it knows what the audience is, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a lovely tongue-in-cheek element to it, which makes it quite kitsch and quite fun. So as actors, it's really lovely, because we can put the heart into it and see character in some of the, as you said, emotional scenes. But then we can also put the wit in it, and the farce, I suppose. That was something I think the writers really watched James, who plays Jarvis, and I interact in Season 1, and really very quickly between the leading cast and also between us and the writers had a very good rapport. Very fun, very sweet, very playful -- at times completely silly -- lots of pranking and trying to outwit each other. And I think that's slowly been written into the season. I think a lot of that humor is a reflection of the atmosphere that we have in the production office. It's great, because it means the showrunners have watched how James and I interact, and they've written that in. They think "Hayley and James can do that. I think that's one of their skills as performers, to push it and give them more to do and have fun with, and see how much of an ass Jarvis -- or James -- is willing to make of himself." [Laughs]Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's so true. The two kinds of stereotypes that you see -- or that I see a lot in film and on TV -- if they're the opposite sex, then there's going to have to be some sexual chemistry or tension at some point; and also, if it's two women, there's got to be some backstabbing competition between them both. Agent Carter kind of turns that on its head and goes, "Well, here's evidence of Jarvis and Peg," who have so much affection for each other... Not one ounce is sexual tension at all. Also, she has relationships with other women, like Angie, for example -- and you'll see more in Season 2 -- but there wasn't any competition. She's not out to get the women -- because there are other women, and therefore they could be a threat. It just doesn't exist in our reality. That's what I love about her. I feel like it's far more realistic.In my personal life, two of my closest friends on the planet are boys, and there's never been any sexual tension between us. I think that's very common for lots of people. So it's nice. It also means that there's an innocence to their relationship, like a real sweetness and respect and a playfulness that's not so on the agenda of trying to get something from each other sexually. There's no kind of sexual power games between them. And I think it's quite funny, Jarvis has something that Peggy would love, which is true love and intimacy, and he has that with Ana, and I think she envies that -- or, "envies" is probably the wrong way of putting it -- she admires it, and it's something that she probably wants for herself. But also, it's something she's just been terrible at getting, attaining, sustaining, having... She's just not lucked out in that way. So that's probably where her respect for Jarvis comes in, because she can laugh at him and roll her eyes at his buffoonery and his inability to get the missions done in the way that she wants them to be done. But that's something that she has tremendous respect for, his personal life.

Continue to Page 2 as Atwell discusses an offbeat dancing sequence from the show, Peggy’s dynamic with Whitney Frost, Wilkes and more.