What is she doing here?

Viewers of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier had to have said that at some point while watching episode 5, whether they were talking about the character or the actress who portrayed her.

The following story contains spoilers, so you’ve been warned. A quarter of the way through episode five, called “Truth,” new Cap John Walker gets his comeuppance for killing a civilian with the iconic shield. He’s ordered to give up the title of Captain America, return the shield, and gets a not-honorable discharge from the military.

The director cuts to Walker sitting with his wife, Olivia, outside the courtroom, figuring out what this bad news means for their future. Their lamenting is interrupted by a well-dressed woman who takes command of the conversation and introduces herself as the Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by none other than Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Comic book fans recognize the Contessa; the character, sometimes known as Madame Hydra, was introduced back in Strange Tales #159 in August 1967 by writer and artist Jim Steranko, who had a legendary run on the Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

She was an Italian woman who joined S.H.I.E.L.D. as a covert agent after the mysterious death of her parents. She didn’t know it at the time, but both of her parents were actually members of the secretive organization Leviathan and were working against the forces of communism in Europe. She became a master of espionage and rose in the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly.

A romance between Valentina and Nick Fury developed and was the key relationship in the Steranko run. Valentina’s character was conceived of as a kind of Bond girl in the series, but she was quickly upgraded to Fury’s equal. She was also a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s unfortunately named Femme Force, a team spearheaded by Agent 13, aka Sharon Carter. Contessa was always one of Fury’s most faithful allies.

Valentina flirted with evil more directly in the role of Madame Hydra, the leader of the entire HYDRA organization. But like with all of her other covert operations, it was all a ruse. It later comes out that Valentina actually killed the original Madame Hydra to take her place. The result of her actions was open warfare between HYDRA and Soviet terror organization Leviathan, which sought to bring down HYDRA from within for many years.

Louis-Dreyfus’ appearance was both a surprise to the actors involved and a continuity error in the Marvel Cinematic and Television Universe.

Wyatt Russell confessed in an interview with Esquire that he had no idea he’d be working with the eight-time Emmy winner, though there were rumblings that someone significant would be involved. Once he was on set with Louis-Dreyfus, Russell felt a sense of ease between the two as actors and praised her for cultivating a sense of spontaneity during her time on the set of the series.

Russell’s surprise at working with Louis-Dreyfus was evidenced by the way his character is dumbfounded as Valentina introduces herself, a scene that takes up only a few minutes in what’s an all-around significant entry in the series.

Vanity Fair reports that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ debut in the MCU was meant to take place in Black Widow, which was meant to debut in May 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic led to a delay. The Marvel schedule changed so that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision both debuted on Disney+ before BW hit movie theaters, so Louis-Dreyfus’s appearance is a bit out of order.

Valentina’s past as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and her time spent as a member of Hydra may be her connection to the Black Widow story, which explores Natasha Romanoff’s origin story. Valentina went to prison after she was revealed to be a Russian sleeper agent while working with both SHIELD and Hydra.

The Contessa’s brief appearance was enough to leave viewers speculating about when Louis-Dreyfus will reappear and what her addition could mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Louis-Dreyfus’ cameo unfolds in a manner befitting her stature as a performer. The fact that it was done with the utmost secrecy is another indication of her significance in the overall MCU story.

Marvel producers hyped up episode five as the one they believed would get fans talking. And though she has kept her new pivotal role in the Marvel universe a secret long after she was meant to debut in Black Widow, Louis-Dreyfus couldn’t help but tease her new gig in an interview she gave to Vanity Fair in 2019.

While seemingly only joking about playing a Marvel villain, Louis-Dreyfus said, “swinging around on wires and kicking people in the face…shooting fire out of whatever you shoot fire out of. I would dig that.” 

Are there more surprise appearances scheduled for next week’s final episode? Online speculation posits any and everyone, from Don Cheadle’s return to a Marvel reunion featuring Chris Evans or Samuel L. Jackson. But if Marvel is good at keeping secrets, and obviously they are, we won’t know until it happens.