Hawkeye
Clinton Francis Barton
Series · Phase 4
Hawkeye
2021 · 45 min
Clint Barton wants to be in Missouri with his children for Christmas and instead spends a week in New York with a 22-year-old who found his Ronin suit at a black-market auction and put it on. Kate…
The Multiverse SagaDisney+92%Released
The story
Clint Barton wants to be in Missouri with his children for Christmas and instead spends a week in New York with a 22-year-old who found his Ronin suit at a black-market auction and put it on. Kate Bishop is an Olympic-level archer with a trust fund and no self-preservation instinct, and she is delighted by all of it.
The series is a Christmas caper about a man dealing with the five years he spent murdering people, and it goes better than it should because Steinfeld and Renner are genuinely funny together. Its lasting contribution is bringing Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin back into canon.
Key facts
- Release date
- 24 Nov 2021
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Phase 4
- Saga
- The Multiverse Saga
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Certificate
- TV-14
- Director
- Rhys Thomas, Bert & Bertie
- Writers
- Jonathan Igla
- Seasons
- 1
- Episodes
- 6
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- December 2024 — Christmas, after Black Widow's post-credits scene
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jeremy Renner | Clint Barton / Hawkeye |
| Hailee Steinfeld | Kate Bishop |
| Vincent D'Onofrio | Wilson Fisk / Kingpin |
| Florence Pugh | Yelena Belova |
| Alaqua Cox | Maya Lopez / Echo |
| Vera Farmiga | Eleanor Bishop |
Characters
Kate Bishop
Katherine Elizabeth Bishop
Yelena Belova
Yelena Belova
Echo
Maya Lopez
Kingpin
Wilson Grant Fisk
Easter eggs
- Vincent D'Onofrio returns as Wilson Fisk from Netflix's Daredevil, in a purple-and-white suit closer to the comics than the show he came from.
- Alaqua Cox debuts as Maya Lopez, Echo, and her deafness and Fisk's paternal grip both come from David Mack's Daredevil run.
- Rogers: The Musical is staged in full, with an 'I Can Do This All Day' number and an actor playing Ant-Man who was not at the Battle of New York.
- Lucky the Pizza Dog is lifted directly from Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye run, which the series adapts throughout.
- The trick arrows include a Pym Particle arrow that produces a giant arrow, plus acid, putty and USB variants.
- Clint's hearing aid makes his comic-canon deafness explicit for the first time in live action, caused by years of concussive damage.
- Jack Duquesne fences and is called the Swordsman in the comics, a running joke the series never fully cashes.
- The LARP subplot, the tracksuit-wearing Tracksuit Mafia and their 'bro' verbal tic are all direct Fraction-run imports.
Trivia
- The series is closely modelled on Matt Fraction and David Aja's 2012 Hawkeye run, widely regarded as the character's definitive comic.
- Marvel courted Hailee Steinfeld for the role for a considerable period before her deal closed.
- Alaqua Cox was cast in her first ever acting role; she is Menominee, deaf and an amputee, and her prosthetic leg is written into the character.
- Florence Pugh's Yelena carries over directly from Black Widow's post-credits scene, making the series a direct sequel to that film.
- The series established Clint's deafness as canon, something the comics had done in 1983 and the films had ignored.
- Rhys Thomas, a Saturday Night Live veteran, directed three episodes including the finale.
- Marvel greenlit the Echo spin-off on the strength of Cox's performance before the series had finished airing.
Reviews
Critics
92%
A breezy, street-level caper with real chemistry between its leads, Hawkeye is a welcome change of pace and finally gives Clint Barton something to do.
The MarvelGossips verdict
Charming, small and comfortably the least self-important MCU series, which is a compliment. Steinfeld is an immediate asset and Kingpin's return is genuinely thrilling in the moment, even if the show has no idea what to do with him. The Ronin material is the only part that reaches for weight, and it mostly earns it.
Related titles
Frequently asked
Is Kate Bishop the new Hawkeye?
The series ends with Clint giving her his blessing and Lucky the dog, though the title is never formally handed over on screen. Hailee Steinfeld appears in The Marvels' mid-credits scene being recruited by Kamala Khan.
How does Kingpin return after Netflix's Daredevil?
Marvel simply brought Vincent D'Onofrio back with no explanation, and Spider-Man: No Way Home did the same with Charlie Cox weeks later. Both are now treated as the same characters, leading to Daredevil: Born Again.
Is Clint Barton deaf in the MCU?
Yes. The series makes it canon, showing his hearing aid and staging a fully silent sequence. It reflects the comics, where Clint's deafness was established in 1983 and reaffirmed in Fraction's run.
Do I need to watch Black Widow first?
It helps a great deal. Yelena's entire motivation — Valentina telling her Clint killed Natasha — comes from that film's post-credits scene, and the rooftop confrontation depends on it.