In the run-up to Secret Invasion, one of the most likely MCU characters suspected to be a Skrull in disguise was Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, the great-niece of Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter.
As seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier she’s now based in Madripoor and is the crime kingpin the ‘Power Broker’, a far cry from her past as a S.H.I.E.L.D. and CIA operative. Does this abrupt career change hint that she’s been replaced by a Skrull operative?
If that is the case they’d better introduce her quickly, as we’re now four episodes in and haven’t had so much of a sniff of any member of the Carter family.
Or have we? In a key episode four scene, Talos and G’iah sit on a park bench to discuss how best to defeat Gravik. As the scene ends we see that the bench has been dedicated to someone with the surname Carter, who was born in 1933 and died in 2000.
My first reaction was that this is a very subtle Peggy Carter Easter Egg, though, after a little thought, it’s clear she’s far too old in Captain America: The First Avenger to be born in 1933. A peek at the MCU wiki indicates she was born in 1921 and died in 2016, so this can’t be memorializing Peggy. The dates also don’t line up for Peggy’s mother Amanda.
Perhaps this is all just a coincidence. After all, “Carter” is hardly an uncommon surname in the United Kingdom, so perhaps this random bench isn’t a prop and simply commemorates a real-life Carter. That, or this is an incredibly subtle bit of foreshadowing that 99.9% of the audience will miss.
Secret Invasion airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.