And the Fangirls (sort of) Rejoiced: Agent Carter Casts a Couple of Cute Boys

Fangirls are pretty much ready to eat up everything that comes from Marvel’s upcoming series Agent Carter. Partially because we’re really ready for a female led Marvel commodity but also because Peggy Carter is such a fabulous character that we can’t get enough of her. The news that Dollhouse alum, Enver Gjokaj, and former teen heartthrob, Chad Michael Murray, have been cast was met with mostly positive responses (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Did you watch Dollhouse? The show was not without it’s issues but Enver Gjokaj’s performance was not one of them, that boy is seriously talented (he’s not bad on the eyes either). And for me Chad Michael Murray congers up memories of pictures torn from magazines and posted on my bedroom walls (I loved him in Gilmore Girls but he’s probably most recognisable for his role in the long running series One Tree Hill).

Chad Michael Murray will play SSR Agent Jack Thompson and Enver Gjokaj will play Agent Daniel Sousa. If the character descriptions that popped up a couple of months ago are accurate, this is some pretty superb casting.

Agent Jack Thompson is in his 30s, handsome and damn well knows it. The polar opposite of Dooley, he doesn’t take kindly to women in the workplace, nor how little recognition he gets. Worse, he wants Dooley’s job and is desperate to prove himself.

Daniel Sousa is everything Jack Thompson wants to be. He’s a war hero who walks using a leg brace, but finds dealing with office politics to be harder than working around his injury. Sousa is also a fiercely honourable, gentle man and we’re betting he becomes one of Peggy’s major allies. (via The Mary Sue)

Unfortunately there was one question on a lot of fangirl’s lips after this announcement: where are all the women?

“yay for @EnverGjokaj, but AgentCarter needs some more women & people of colour. Hopefully that’ll be the next announcement”  – @tehnakki

“dead serious. where. are. all. the. ladies???? one is not enough.” – antmactictac

“so far, we have hayley atwell, dominic cooper, enver gjokaj, and chad michael murray on the cast of agent carter. all white, 3/4ths male. you’d think a show about a female feminist leader in the post WWII world would have more than one woman in its main cast by now — you’d think it might actually star women, plural.” – sarriane

How bout announce some other female characters? I do NOT believe Carter is the only woman still with the SSR, we saw plenty of them in the bunkers in Cap. How bout announce some black characters! Black people did exist post-WWII. – tehnakki

This is only the first casting announcement (outside of Haley Atwell), so we probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet, but it would be a shame to see this potentially amazing series fail in such a simple way. As Tumblr user antmactictac put it: “one [woman] is not enough.”

That said, Agent Carter will show the titular character dealing with the return of men to the workforce post WWII, so they do need quite a few male characters to do that. Still, it would be nice to see a little diversity in the next announcement and at least one other female series regular. It would be a shame if Marvel’s Agent Carter ended up failing the Bechdel Test. Don’t me wrong, I’m still going to watch it (and I’m probably going to love it) but I would really hate to have to start every one of my reviews by saying that Peggy Carter didn’t talk to any girls again this week.

What do you think? Are you as excited as I am to see Enver Gjokaj as a series regular? Did you have Chad Michael Murray’s poster on your wall when you were a teenager? And how to do you feel about the lack of the diversity in this announcement?

Author: Undie Girl

Undie Girl (aka Von) has a BA (Hons) Major in Cultural Studies. The title of her honours thesis was “It’s just gay and porn”: Power, Identity and the Fangirl’s Gaze. She’s currently pursuing a Masters of Media Practice at University of Sydney. Von’s a former contributor The Backlot’s column The Shipping News and a current co-host of The Geekiary’s monthly webcast FEELINGS… with The Geekiary.

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