While Marvel has done a lot of smart things, one of the best decisions they made was casting Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. Unlike some of the Marvel movies where the love story feels forced and unrealistic (see: Thor), the relationship between Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Atwell) was fantastic thanks to the actors’ chemistry and a great script. With her character becoming an instant favorite after the film’s release, it was no surprise Marvel asked her to appear in one of their One Shot short films, Agent Carter, which was included on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray. The short picked up where the events of Captain America: The First Avenger left off—right as Carter joins this new organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.: “As she searches for the enigmatic ‘Zodiac’ key, Agent Carter also battles her sexist, bureaucratic boss, Agent Flynn (Bradley Whitford), who thinks women have no place in the secret-agent business.” Dominic Cooper also reprised his role as Howard Stark.

Almost immediately after fans got a look at the short at Comic-Con, people began asking about a possible Agent Carter TV series. I was one of them. Thankfully, ABC thought it was a good enough idea that they started developing it with Captain America screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Yesterday at the Winter Solider junket, I asked them the status of the pilot, what the show would focus on, its timeline, whether Atwell is still interested in playing the character, and more. They also revealed that the show is envisioned as more of a limited series with 13-episode seasons or less. Hit the jump to see what they had to say.

Here are a few of the highlights I learned from the interview:

ABC has the script for the pilot but nothing is greenlit yet.

Markus and McFeely have recently spoken to Hayley Atwell and she is very interested in doing the show.

Howard Stark would be a recurring character, not a series regular. This is assuming Dominic Cooper would be willing to continue to play the role. I’ve spoken to him about this and he seemed very interested. But this was a few months ago and things change.

The show would start in 1946, sort of in the middle of the timeline of the One Shot. McFeely said, “We can’t get her to the end of S.H.I.E.L.D. that fast. We wanna stay in that world longer where people are disrespecting her and she’s proving herself and going on missions and things like that.”

Unlike most network shows that are 22 or 23-episode seasons, Markus and McFeely think Agent Carter should be a limited series with a maximum of 13 episodes per season. McFeely said, “[13 episodes] is how this is envisioned, maybe even less… That’s my hope, is that it would be something like [Under the Dome]. Our case would be that it would be a limited series and you would wrap up that one bad guy and that one case, and then if you like it we’ll do it again next year and it’s 1947.”

Watch what Markus and McFeely had to say about Agent Carter below. There is a slight Captain America: The Winter Solider spoiler in the video (it concerns a character that appears in the film…which most of you already know about).

While network television produces a lot of crap, I really think Agent Carter could be something special and I’d love to watch Atwell play Agent Carter on a weekly basis. Especially with the show taking place in the 40s and showing the early formation of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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