Captain America: The Winter Soldier may have set Scarlett Johansson’s super-spy Black Widow up as the leading lady – and there’s rumours of romance – but fans of the comic know to look out for new character Sharon Carter, aka Agent 13.

Played by Emily VanCamp from TV’s Revenge, Sharon is a relation of khaki-clad OSS badass Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who was all set to become Steve’s wartime sweetheart in the first film.

In the comics, the pair share a passionate on-off relationship, but speaking exclusively to SciFiNow in the new issue co-director Joe Russo says they’re taking things slow.

“We introduce her as a character in this movie, but it’s sort of a soft introduction,” says the director.

“There’s definitely the budding of [a romance], but it’s something that’s more left to future storytellers.”

Those future storytellers may well be Joe and Anthony Russo, who are already developing a threequel for Marvel, although it won’t be officially greenlit until The Winter Soldier‘s opening weekend is in.

In a deleted scene on the Avengers Assemble DVD and Blu-ray release, we learned that she is still alive – adding a whole new element to any future love triangle the Russo brothers want to play around with in Captain America 3.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is due in cinemas 4 April 2014 – read our huge behind the scenes exclusive here. Buy the first film as triple-play DVD, Blu-ray and digital copy for £17.99 from Amazon.co.uk.