Is Marvel Intentionally Editing Hawkeye Out of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Trailers?

In the lead up to Avengers: Infinity War, fans have many questions but few have dominated discussions like the whereabouts of one specific team member. Everyone wants to know: where is Hawkeye?

And Marvel Studios isn’t doing fans any favors, leaving him out of marketing materials and in some cases it looks like they’re altering footage in which Clint Barton normally appears.

This revelation comes in the latest TV spots for the movie, previewing what fans can expect when Avengers: Infinity War premieres in theaters. One spot called “Legacy” begins with clips from the previous decade of Marvel Studios movies, showing all of the heroes who will appear in the new film. You can watch it above.

They include one clip from The Avengers, the first crossover film from Marvel Studios, showing Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye walking down a corridor. However, the YouTube version of this trailer (above) crops Hawkeye out completely, showing just Cap and Widow, at the 0:10 second mark.

This is even more interesting when you watch the Twitter version of the same TV spot. Marvel trailers on social media pages like Twitter and Instagram generally use a square aspect ratio instead of the wide, panoramic version they put on YouTube, so they definitely had to do a bit more editing just to make sure vital images weren’t cropped out.

But Hawkeye appears in that version, as if they forgot to crop the shot and remove the Avenging Archer.

It’s obvious that Marvel Studios is playing the long game with Hawkeye, saving his inevitable appearance to be a major surprise and likely have a major impact on the upcoming battle against Thanos and the Black Order. But going so far as to cropping him out of pre-existing footage from an earlier movie? And then forgetting to do it on a different version of the same trailer? That’s just strange.

Directors Anthony and Joseph Russo definitely have a plan for Jeremy Renner’s character, as they both revealed to Joe.ie at a recent press event for the film.

“We keep saying, ‘Patience is a virtue.’ We did not forget the twice-nominated Jeremy Renner,” Joe said. “We cooked up a story for him that is a little bit of a long play. Not a short play.”

“All will be revealed,” Anthony added.

We’ll learn what’s going on with Hawkeye when Avengers: Infinity War premieres in theaters on April 27th.

Where do you think Hawkeye is? Be sure to give us your best theory in the comments!

(h/t Anton Volkov)