A couple of Hayley Atwell stories are doing the rounds this morning, one with a bit more substance than the other. The first involves the idea that Peggy Carter might somehow be getting her own movie spinning off from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The other has to do with Atwell strapping on Lara Croft's vest and pistols for the in-the-works Tomb Raider reboot.
Let's deal with the least likely first. There is almost certainly not going to be a solo Peggy Carter movie. Why would there be? What would happen in it? Peggy Carter has never even had a solo comic, so why would she get a film?
The talk comes from Atwell responding to the question of if she got to play Carter again, what might she hope to do with her (her Winter Soldier appearance is, by all accounts, brief). "I'd like to revisit Peggy again," is the answer. "If I get a spin-off, I'd like to definitely add a bit of humour in there. She's very British, very uptight. Let's hope if she gets a spin-off it's modern-day, so she can relax a little bit, and let go of the uniform."
That's pretty much the entire story... except that there may be something in the works for Comic-Con. Atwell says that the Con will feature "a little snapshot of what Peggy's actually really capable of... which was great fun."
In Camp Lara, meanwhile, the story is that some Twitter voices were raised in support of the idea of Atwell in the lead, which Atwell has been happy to retweet. "There's some kind of online campaign for me to do Tomb Raider Reborn," she explains, "which I know has just come out as a game. MGM have the rights to turn it into a film, which would be fantastic to do because I'd get to spend a year of my life training hard and pick up all sorts of fantastic fun skills."
That's Hayley's hat in the Tomb Raider ring then, though whether MGM keep it there is another matter. She's undoubtedly got the chops - among other assets #obligatoryLaranorksgag - for the part, but if MGM are looking to Reborn as the source for the planned new movie (which seems likely, but is by no means especially confirmed or set in stone), Atwell would, sadly, at 31, seem already to be too old. If there's anything as organised as a "campaign" to get Atwell the role, there are at least an equal number of voices murmuring Jennifer Lawrence's name.
All pure speculation and hearsay and non-news, basically. What's certain is that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is currently in production and out next April. Chances are we'll see Hayley before then in the Jimi Hendrix biopic All Is By My Side, although that doesn't have a release date so far.