Captain Carter (Peggy Carter as the super-soldier who takes Steve Rogers' serum and role) recurs across multiple episodes, including Ep5 where her mission reframes WWII outcomes and accelerates the feminist movement in that timeline; this gender-swapped version of an established iconic archetype drives several arcs and draws audience complaints of her becoming a Mary Sue with excessive focus. Ep6 centers the original character Kahhori, a Mohawk woman whose episode is largely in the Mohawk language, depicts her gaining Tesseract powers to defend her people against conquistadors, and later spawned a dedicated Marvel Voices comic one-shot.

Other episodes feature capable female leads like Nebula and Hela without similar emphasis. Audience reception shows scattered backlash labeling the season "woke" for female-driven stories and diversity, alongside defenses that organic casting alone does not qualify as such.

Creator statements emphasize broad MCU representation without explicit activist framing for this season. These elements influence character prominence and one episode's cultural focus but do not make identity politics the foundational premise or primary emotional driver across the nine episodes.