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The undeniable connection between Captain America and Peggy Carter helped bring Hayley Atwell back to the MCU

"You can't have Steve without Peggy," explains Hayley Atwell as the pair reunite in Avengers: Doomsday.

SDCC 2026 Article Header Hayley Atwell — Image credit: Marvel Studios / Popverse

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Wed Jul 29 2026

Popverse's coverage of Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026 is brought to you by Dark Horse Comics.

So many stars are returning for Avengers: Doomsday that it can be tough to keep track of them all. With Chris Evans coming back as Steve Rogers, it wasn’t a huge leap to discover that Hayley Atwell is coming back as Peggy Carter. We haven’t seen Peggy in live action since she had a rather unfortunate encounter with Wanda in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. What brought her back to the MCU this year? Part of it was having Steve Rogers back.

While talking to the press at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Hayley Atwell talked about the connection between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter as something that both characters need.

“Chris [Evans] I’ve known for so long now, and it feels like when we first met we were like babies, you know?” Atwell said. “We were in such different stages of our lives, and we were embarking on something that we had no idea it would land in the way it did and that we’d be here all these years later with the fans again and talking about it.”

It is that connection between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter that meant that, when Chris Evans came back, Hayley Atwell would soon follow.

“It’s really touching to me that their love story is an enduring one for the fans. And that you can’t really have Steve without Peggy or without the longing for Peggy.”

“I think in this one, what I’ve enjoyed, anytime I’ve come back, I’ve really wanted Peggy to have something different to do. Something new. Something more. To feel like she’s evolved in some way or that the story has kind of moved forward. And I think we have that with [Avengers: Doomsday] because the stakes are so high. It’s such an existential epic of a movie, and you see Peggy in a very different light responding to that.”

The combination of high stakes and the undeniable pull between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter seems to have been enough to bring both Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell back for Avengers: Doomsday.

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