Avengers: Endgame writers say Peggy Carter’s husband is Steve Rogers

A theory spurred on by the twist involving Captain America in Avengers: Endgame is supported by the film’s writers, who say it is true and intentional.

We learned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, from a throwaway line, that Peggy Carter took a husband after the war and following the events of the ABC show Agent Carter. It was before Phase Three and was more ambiguous in 2014, but Avengers: Endgame and its multiversal, time-hopping madness lead many to believe the husband was the Steve Rogers from the future who went back to put the Infinity Stones in their rightful historical places and appeared at the end as an aged man.

It’s a complex theory with detractors, not to mention heavy science and logic against it. However, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely support it. Speaking with Canada.com, the pair concurred that all Marvel movies, since Iron Man, share the same timeline ending in Steve traveling to the past and living out his life with Peggy:

"“Chris and I are partial to the idea that Steve is part of a strange, unique time-loop where he has always been there.“The husband that you very purposefully did not see at Peggy’s bedside in Winter Soldier is Chris’ Steve. We have always thought that he was her husband. The movies you have been watching follow a line where he always goes back.”"

They added they understand there is disagreement on the subject, including within their own ranks:

"To be fair, not everyone agrees with us. I don’t even know if Marvel agrees with us. But that’s what we think.”"

In the months since Endgame’s release, fans have speculated that the elderly Steve Rogers was present in Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity all along, watching from the sidelines and even attending Peggy Carter’s funeral as a pallbearer. At San Diego Comic-Con, Markus and McFeely expressed their assent that is the case, adding the caveat it’s more of a feeling they have than something they can prove in light of Marvel’s established rules for time travel:

"“That Steve Rogers who looped back into time has therefore always been there, and that he is living somewhere else in the movies you’re watching….And what I really like to believe is that there’s an old man sitting in back at Peggy’s funeral in Civil War, and that’s old Steve Rogers, watching young Steve Rogers, carry old Steve Rogers’s wife up to the front of the church. Can I explain it scientifically? Not really, no.”"

More questions are raised over this revelation, such as why Steve didn’t ever intervene, knowing what he knows, in all that time; and how he managed jumping back decades earlier in his own timeline with the last of the Pym Particles, no less without creating an alternate timeline.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo think there is an alternate timeline. Markus and McFeely believe it’s the MCU timeline we all know and might be alone in that belief among their peers. The debate continues. Whether Marvel clears thing up or not is up to them and they may not do so anytime soon, according to McFeely:

"“It depends on what story Marvel wants to tell going forward. I don’t know if Marvel wants to tell any more Captain America stories or if Chris [Evans] is up for it. Do they want to tell an alternate timeline story?”"

Avengers: Endgame is on Blu-ray and digital now. For all the latest news and speculation, stick to Bam Smack Pow.