Warning! Potential spoilers for Avengers 4 lie below!
Marvel Studios won’t see its fourth Avengers film enter theaters until 2019, but work has already started on the feature. Avengers 4 began production in Atlanta this month as its sets were erected at the city’s Pinewood Studios. However, it is Hawkeye‘s bit in Avengers 4 that has fans talking.
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Avengers 4 is in early days of production, but its shoots will take Earth’s mightiest heroes to a brand-new place. The film’s sets have brought a slice of Japan to Atlanta, and stars like Scarlett Johansson have been seen on-set for the foreign affair. Jeremy Renner has also been spotted, and fans are making connections between Hawkeye and his Japanese roots.
After all, in the comics, Clint Barton hasn’t always operated under the name of Hawkeye. The character has used the moniker Ronin before, and the alias is one with close ties to Japan. The master-less hero was created by Brian Michael Bendis in 2005, and the Japanese-inspired hero has been used by several characters over the years. Clint was the second person to adopt the moniker after he joined the New Avengers in the aftermath of Civil War.
As fans know, Clint will be dealing with the fallout of the MCU’s own Civil War debacle. The archer sided with Captain America during the feud, a choice which led him to be captured and branded a terrorist by the U.N. The hero was able to escape imprisonment in The Raft after Steve Rogers broke his allies out of the base, but Clint may not be up for operating under his former alias moving forward. Hawkeye is a name closely connected to the Avengers, so it would not be surprising to see the hero take up the name Ronin instead.
There’s no official word on why Avengers 4 will use Japan as a setting, but its inclusion of Hawkeye does have fans suspicious. Renner posted a photo of himself on-set for his Avengers tenure, and the rugged look seems notably different from his clean-cut aesthetic. Clint may turn over a new leaf by the time Avengers 4 comes around, and Ronin may be the result of such a change.
With the superhero world in flux, Clint’s skills will be in demand once Thanos makes himself known to the universe, and it is not in the hero’s nature to turn down a plea for help. However, fans should not expect the former SHIELD operative to answer the call like he’s done before. This time around, Clint may pick up the phone with a brand-new alias in tow.
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