Seven months after it aired in the U.S., Marvel‘s Agent Carter is finally coming to the U.K.
For a show with three British actors in leading roles (Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy and Dominic Cooper), Agent Carter took a surprisingly long time to make its way across the Atlantic. While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was syndicated to Channel 4, the U.K. rights to Agent Carter went to FOX, with the first episodes airing in July.
Due to staggered airdates, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. frequently runs into problems when its storylines cross over with Marvel movies. Major events in the show were timed to coincide with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but this only worked for U.S. audiences. Elsewhere, the storylines didn’t match up.
Luckily Agent Carter‘s 1940s setting means it won’t be out of sync with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it airs in the U.K. However, the show’s passionate online fandom and the uncertainty of it ever getting a U.K. release led many British fans to pirate it already.
Compared to Marvel’s otherwise obsessive attention to detail when marketing its cinematic universe, this may seem like a bizarre oversight. But while Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. both air on the Disney/Marvel-affiliated ABC network in the U.S., Marvel Studios has no real control over foreign syndication decisions.
The second season of Agent Carter will air in the U.S. in early 2016, probably during Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s midseason hiatus. Here’s hoping the U.K. market won’t wait so long to follow suit.
Photo via Marvel