Daniel Jordan Sousa is a fictional

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

portrayed by

Enver Gjokaj Enver Leif Gjokaj ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles as Victor in the science fiction television series ''Dollhouse'' and as Daniel Sousa in '' Agent Carter'', a role he later reprised ...

in the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...

(MCU). A war veteran and agent with the SSR (and later

S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in ''Strange Tales'' #135 (August 1965), it often dea ...

) who experiences prejudice due to his leg injury, he was created for '' Agent Carter'' (2015–2016). Gjokaj then signed a deal to return for the seventh season of ''

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' is an American television series created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen for ABC, based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, an ...

'' (2020).

Fictional character biography

''Agent Carter''

In the first season of '' Agent Carter'', set in 1946, Sousa's own investigation into

Howard Stark Howard Stark is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as a background character in stories featuring Iron Man and stories featuring Captain America. He is the founde ...

after he is framed for supplying deadly weapons to enemies of the United States leads to him discovering

Peggy Carter Margaret Elizabeth Carter is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in books featuring Captain America. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirb ...

's secret providence of him with assistance. In the second season, set in 1947, his relationship with Carter becoming complicated, Sousa accepts the position of chief of the Los Angeles SSR office to get some distance from her, and eventually begins a new relationship with Violet, a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

. However, Violet leaves Sousa when she discovers that he still has feelings for Carter; Sousa eventually begins a relationship with Carter, once they defeat Whitney Frost together.

''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''

Gjokaj reprises his role as Sousa during the seventh season of ''

''. In 1955, he first encounters the main time-travelling S.H.I.E.L.D. team after he encounters

Jemma Simmons Jemma Anne Simmons is a fictional character that originated in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before appearing in Marvel Comics. The character, created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, first appeared in the 2013 pilot episode ...

impersonating Peggy Carter, their relationship having ended. After preventing him from being assassinated by a Hydra agent sent by Wilfred Malick as he originally was in history, Sousa joins the team in their mission through time against the

Chronicoms This is a list of alien races that appear in Marvel Comics. Overview There are countless different extraterrestrial races in Marvel Comics universe. The vast majority are humanoid in structure. Galactic Council The Galactic Council is the assem ...

, entering a romantic relationship with

Daisy Johnson Daisy Johnson, also known as Quake, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Gabriele Dell'Otto, the character first appeared in '' Secret War'' #2 ...

after being trapped in a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. The term "time loop" is sometimes us ...

. In the process, a new and more advanced prosthetic leg is built for him which enables him to walk and run normally again. One year after defeating the Chronicoms, Sousa joins the present day S.H.I.E.L.D. and continues to work alongside Daisy and Kora.

Concept and creation

Gjokaj was cast in the role in August 2014, having previously portrayed a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

who encounters Steve Rogers in ''The Avengers''. "He was a soldier, and he had been very active all his life, and now he has to figure out how to use his brains, how to try to be smart," Gjokaj explained of the character. "He accepts his injury, he accepts his compromised status in society ... Peggy says, 'Forget this. I'm Peggy Carter. I'm going to do something else.' I think that's the difference between the two of them." Considering a potentially romantic relationship between Sousa and Carter, Gjokaj said, "I think there’s definitely a situation where ... if she hadn't dated Captain America, he might ask her out for a drink. It’s like if your new girlfriend dated Ryan Gosling. It’s going to make you sweat a bit."

Characterization

For the second season of ''Agent Carter'', Gjokaj said, "you’ll see him deal with actually being part of the machine. Not trying to get the machine, but being the boss. The first season was him trying to be listened to, and now he’s being listened to by a lot of people." The costumes for the SSR agents in the series are meant to be distinctive to help explain their characters: Sousa wears "sweater vests under his sport coats and pleated pants". Ahead of the second season, Fazekas explained that after Carter turned Sousa down at the end of the first season, saying "Oh, let me take a rain check. I have something to do", Carter felt like a potential relationship was something she could consider, while Sousa "felt like he missed an opportunity there." Because of that, Sousa moved to Los Angeles to avoid Carter, and "They haven’t spoken since he left. There’s that interesting awkward

eeling Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stag ...

when they start working together again. But now Sousa has got a girlfriend and it’s very serious, so that’s a new thing for Peggy to deal with." Though Sousa and Carter do eventually get together in the second-season finale, the executive producers warned that this did not necessarily mean Sousa is Carter's future husband, who was first mentioned in '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier''.

References