Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: disney, hawkeye, marvel, tv

Hawkeye – Kevin Feige: Clint Barton "Reluctant Mentor" to Kate Bishop

With the Hawkeye series coming out this week, all six of the original Avengers have had their own solo outings. It was a long road for Hawkeye and Black Widow to get here, but here we are. While Black Widow got her own movie, Marvel decided to go the TV route for Hawkeye and also decided to bring in Kate Bishop. Marvel Megaboss Kevin Feige explained during the virtual press conference why they decided to do this series, and it had a lot to do with star Jeremy Renner himself.

"Well, primarily, it's Jeremy Renner," Feige explained. "We wanted to see more Jeremy Renner. You wanted to see more of Jeremy Renner and more of Jeremy Renner. And that goes back to the earliest days; yes, we're both grandfathers now of the MCU. The trust that Jeremy had to jump into the MCU before moderators said things like, welcome to the MCU. It was, hey, you want to do this thing with us, and it'd be pretty cool, and I think it could be neat."

Feige went on to talk about how the roles that Renner and Hawkeye had, in the beginning, were minimal, but he was also very good at stealing the scenes that he was in. Feige specifically cited a moment from Avengers: Age of Ultron that really helps connect the Marvel Cinematic version of Hawkeye to the Fraction/Aja comic book version. That all comes down to being not only a reluctant hero but a reluctant mentor in the end.

"And I thought that was pretty cool, but they were relatively small, obviously," Feige continued. "Ultron we saw a little more, and then he just started stealing all the scenes, but it was always the intention to explore much more. The character's history is vast. And also, the Matt Fraction comics, which I'm sure people have been spending a lot of time talking about over these last few press days, was a big tonal inspiration for us—and seeing this new dynamic. And there are moments within all of Jeremy's appearances where you see this mentor under the surface. This reluctant hero. This reluctant mentor under the surface. One of my favorite scenes in-in all of our films is the scene with Clint and Wanda in Sokovia when he basically says, "you go out that door, you're an Avenger" and that motivates her to join the fight. That was the kernel of how we could connect our MCU incarnation of ClintBarton into the Matt Fraction storyline and the relationship with Kate Bishop."

The relationship that Clint and Kate have in the first two episodes of Hawkeye does feel a lot like the relationship that we got to see between Clint and Wanda during Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. We didn't get a lot of time to explore that specific dynamic, but bringing in Kate is a good way to really see a new version of Hawkeye. It also means bringing in Kate Bishop, who is one of the best characters in Marvel comics [don't @ me].

Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld are being joined on Hawkeye by a pretty impressive line-up of names. Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) is set as Eleanor Bishop, mother of Kate Bishop (Steinfeld), while Fra Fee (The Spanish Princess) is set to play Kazi (most likely short for Kazimierz Kazimierczak) aka mercenary villain Clown in the comics. Tony Dalton's (Better Call Saul) Jack Duquesne (aka Swordsman?), a possible mentor for Hawkeye who has lived on both sides of the law throughout this comic book career. Florence Pugh will reprise the role of spy and assassin Yelena Belova, sister of Black Widow, from the Scarlett Johansson-starring film Black Widow. Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez (aka Echo) is a deaf Native American who is capable of perfectly copying another person's movements, making her a formidable fighter. Zahn McClarnon's (Barkskins) William Lopez is expected to be a take on Maya's father Willie "Crazy Horse" Lincoln from the comics. Directors Bert & Bertie (Troop Zero, Kidding) are helming the live-action adaptation.

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