May of 2016 was a bad month to be a Peggy Carter fan. As if the death of Hayley Atwell's beloved character in Captain America: Civil War wasn't enough, we had to lose her all over again a week later, when ABC pulled the plug on her solo series Agent Carter after two seasons.
But ABC is still very much in the Hayley Atwell business – she's fronting its new legal drama Conviction, playing a former First Daughter-turned-lawyer who specialises in wrongful conviction cases.
A coke-snorting "risk-taker" who's as reckless professionally as she is personally, Conviction's protagonist Hayes Morrison is worlds away from Agent Carter. But Atwell told reporters at the TCA Press Tour on Thursday (August 4) that she didn't struggle to leave Peggy behind.
"It feels like an easy transition when you have good material," Atwell said, "and when the character pings at you from the page."
What drew her to the role of Hayes, Atwell explained, was the complex divide between her public and private personas: "I looked at people in positions of power and the faces they put on, the way they chose to work a room… What's interesting as an actor is to find where the chinks in that armour are, and the cost of having to be on form all the time, what that does to your psyche."
Last week at press tour, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos explained why they opted not to save Agent Carter, as many fans had hoped they would. "We're looking for truly original brands to own," Sarandos said, pointing out that they already have several of their own shows in "that Marvel space", among them Daredevil, Jessica Jones and the upcoming Luke Cage.
If the Agent Carter wounds aren't still too fresh by the time it premieres, you can get your Atwell fix in Conviction from October 3 on ABC.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
