An on-set photo of Hayley Atwell could possibly hint at her filming an appearance in Avengers 4. The British actress is known in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers' love interest from Captain America: The First Avenger. Later on, due to the reception to her character on screen, she spearheaded her own ABC TV series titled Agent Carter set in the 1940s. Unfortunately, the show was canceled last year after the broadcast station axed a slew of their projects in several stages of production. Since then, we have not really seen her in anything Marvel-related, but we do know that she has already passed, as revealed in Captain America: Civil War.

Not much is known regarding the narrative specifics of the still untitled Avengers 4. Marvel Studios is keeping information regarding the film tightly under wraps, understandably so given that chances are it would spoil some of the events that will take place in its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, which comes in a year earlier. That said, with principal photography for the film currently ongoing in Atlanta, Georgia, we are treated to some tiny set details that could help us have an inkling as to what the MCU Phase 3 capper will be about.

Related: Avengers 4 Has Officially Begun Filming

Atwell's photo, however, did not come from the usual set-based photographers lingering around, instead, it actually came from the actress herself posting a selfie on her official Instagram. While the snap could be from any other project she's a part of, like Christopher Robin - a film also under the Disney umbrella that's currently filming - what's led fans to believe it's for Avengers 4 are the facial tracking dots used for motion-capture and other computer generated graphics like de-aging and aging. [UPDATE: Atwell has now confirmed that the photo is from the set of Christopher Robin and not Avengers 4. The rest of this article has been left as it was originally published.] 

Don't question my process. It's very serious #setlifethuglife A post shared by Hayley Atwell (@wellhayley) on

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We've seen Marvel use this trick a few times now with Michael Douglas as Hank Pym in Ant-Man (in which Atwell also had a cameo) and most recently, Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark in Civil War. Those two, however, used the de-aging process which could also be the case for the actress this time, but there is arguably a higher chance that it will be for the aging process.

While rumors point to an Avengers 4 appearance given that it is the film currently in production, it is also possible that this is for Infinity War. Just several days ago, it was revealed that casting for '60s secretaries and engineers was underway for Avengers 3, which could mean either a flashback or a time-traveling mechanism with the help of Doctor Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) Time Gem. The sequence in the era seems to be a great way to bring Peggy back and since her normal appearance was already used for the '40s-set Agent Carter, adding some two-decades worth of lines and wrinkles would make her '60s cameos more believable.

Of course, at this point, these are pure speculations and with Avengers 4 technically almost two years away, we might have to wait a little longer to find out if this particular theory comes to fruition or not. That said, there seem to be no major drawbacks of bringing Peggy back into the MCU fold again. She does not necessarily need to have a huge narrative impact, but it will be great to see her tied into Steve's storyline especially if Captain America bites the bullet in the movie.

Next: Avengers 4: Gwyneth Paltrow Hints That Don Cheadle Will Return

Source: Hayley Atwell

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