Hawkeye Set Up This Avengers Crossover and We All Missed It

Hawkeye (Clint Barton) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) recreated the iconic cover to Avengers #223 during the events of Captain America: Civil War, much to the delight of comic readers everywhere. As it turns out, that quick team-up may have been just the beginning of the relationship between the two characters. In fact, Hawkeye was packed full of evidence the two were still working together in some capacity, despite Rudd’s Scott Lang never making an appearance.

The first evidence of a growing friendship came through in Hawkeye Episode 3, when Barton revealed he had access to at least one arrow embedded with Pym particles. As we’ve seen in virtually any appearance of Pym’s (Michael Douglas), the scientist is incredibly protective of his proprietary formula.

Fast forward to the show’s season finale, and it’s revealed Barton has even more Pym Particles on hand—signaling a pretty healthy relationship with the entire Ant-Man clan.

Not only that, but the show’s Rogers: The Musical has added the character as an Avenger, despite the fact he was never involved with the group during the Battle of New York. In fact, there was an idea the character would appear in the show in a tiny cameo role.

On the press tour for the show, Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas did reveal he tried getting Rudd on board at one time or another.

“I don’t want to reveal anything because we do kinda get to introduce [some characters],” Thomas said. “Here’s one-Ant-man. Paul [Rudd] and Jeremy’s dynamic together I enjoy. I enjoyed their press tour dynamic when they were on the ‘Avengers’ run. So [Ant-Man] was a character that felt like a fun way to play at the absurdity of Clint’s situation…but I did get to have a little nod to that.”

Every episode of Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+ while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is due out in theaters on July 28, 2023.

What other street-level characters do you hope to see pop up in the MCU? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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