Sharon Carter appeared once again on the stage of Marvel Cinematic Universe. But she’s quite different now, not so much of a hero anymore. However, that creates a whole new teritory to unfold with the character. The only question is: how will it happen?
Last time we saw Sharon Carter (played by Emily VanCamp), she was one of the good guys, helping Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes get out of trouble. And at the same time getting into trouble herself, by violating the Sokovia Accords. Because of that, by the end of Captain America: Civil War she was declared a criminal and had to get out of the United States. Some years passed and thanks to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series we now learn, that over the last seven years she’s been busy in Madripoor, an asian city where illegall is nothing abnormal.
When she was introduced as a citizen, most people assumed she was working for a criminal boss, perhaps even undercover for a shady US government institution, but that did not turn out to be true. In the season finale it is said that she herself is the boss, the mystery Power Broker. But what role will that play in future installments of MCU? The creator of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Malcolm Spellman suggests that nothing is for sure:
I’d say this: I haven’t thought about [the future for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier characters]. I think Sharon, how villainous is she? I don’t know. You know what I’m saying? Did she really hurt Sam at all in that storyline? You know what I’m saying? I don’t know. Like to me, Sharon could go all the way bad, could come back. Who knows where she’s going to go?
However, because of that, the full pardon she was granted is not so much of a good thing, at least for the officials, as Sharon Carter is freely using her newly restored access to offer government secrets and prototype weapons to the highest bidder. That very line is the reason why a theory about her plaing a villainous role in upcoming Armor Wars series, which is supposed to deal with recovering of stolen Stark tech, is very popular. Yet, according to Spellman, that does not have to be true:
This’ll help people understand the Marvel process. They want you to just create the best (…) you can create. If you’re writing and Vision is in your… And you said, ‘Hey, I got the great picture of Vision appearing,’ they’re going to tell you, ‘No,’ because WandaVision is coming, right? But beyond that, you are free. So we created a city that was loosely based on a real place out in Asia, where this city is where there’s open air gun bazaars, there’s restaurants that sell endangered species on the menu, right? That’s a real place. And we created this sort of shady CIA-esque character for the end with John Walker. Once you do that and create your thing, Marvel starts to draw the connections to the broader MCU.
To sum it up: nothing is either confirmed or denied. Although it’s pretty safe to assume that Marvel Studios’ creative team is now working to include this new version of Sharon Carter into an interesting storyline. All we have to do is wait and hope for good fun.