Hawkeye Director Explains MCU Collaboration Process

When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no project is an island. Each series and film in the ever-expanding MCU is connected be it through events, characters, or settings and while that makes for a rich and engaging experience for fans, for the creative talent bringing projects to life it means careful collaboration. Now, Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas explains the collaboration process for the upcoming Disney+ series, revealing how some ideas didn’t pan out because they were already in play for other projects.

“I mean, fortunately, my role as an executive producer on this was really just about trying to sort of protect all things Hawkeye and you know, from story, there’s completion sort of just, I guess, silo that off,” Thomas told ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis. “So Trinh Tran was actually really the one who had access to the keys to some of the other vehicles in the garage. But even then, I think above her there’s Kevin [Feige] so like we would sometimes have that surprise of like, you know, I mean my general experience was like, I would sort of have an idea in the middle of the night and get all excited and rush in the next day and think, ‘oh I’ve solved this problem.’ And then you’d find out, and then sometimes Trinh wouldn’t even know that, oh, they’re doing that in this show so you can’t. And that was the way I usually found out.”

Thomas also said that he didn’t have to worry too much about sorting out the geographical elements of the Marvel New York City skyline, either. Like with story elements, there was always someone who know what was okay to use and, perhaps more importantly, what went where.

“New York and the MCU does have its own, you know, little geographic components. And so, yeah, I mean, again, I grew up, you know, no, I didn’t grow up, but I grew up as an adult in New York, and obviously I was in SNL for a long time,” Thomas said. “So, I take the city very seriously and sort of took a lot of pride, I think, in sort of shooting and trying to be as accurate as I could about it. But then yeah, you have this other layer of like, ‘Oh, that’s what Grand Central is really this, there’s the memorial to the, you know, to the..’ and so, yeah. But you know, you’ve got this deep archives to sort of pull on and elements from these other movies that have been here. And yeah, it’s, I don’t know. It’s again, I didn’t have to worry about it too much. I knew that there was someone that would know, like that’s where that thing is.”

Hawkeye debuts with a two-episode premiere on Disney+ on November 24th.

If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here. Note: If you purchase one of the awesome, independently chosen products featured here, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.