Hawkeye Directors Reveal How Marvel's Kevin Feige Saved One Epic Scene

By Adam Barnhardt

Hawkeye has introduced fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a smaller corner of the franchise. While properties like Eternals have universe-altering plot threads running through their scripts, the Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld-starring series is largely confined to its own street-level corner of the shared cinematic world. Because of that, the series is largely dark. So dark, in fact, one of the show's most high-octane sequences was initially set at night until a certain Marvel Studios executive stepped in with a note.

During a new interview with EW, Hawkeye helmers Bert and Bertie revealed Kevin Feige suggested the team change the massive car chase in Episode 3 to take place sometime during the day. That way at least one light scene would contrast all the night-time shootouts. According to the duo, it's something that ended up making the car chase the best it could be.

"It was only after we'd started shooting the show that Kevin was like, 'there's too much at night. We need to put some sequences in the day,'" Bertie—real name Katie Ellwood—told the magazine. "But we'd planned it all at night! And of course we had been like hey, you can hide things in the shadows. But then suddenly it was daylight. So we just reconvened with our amazing team and decided to embrace it. We'd already decided to do as much practically as possible, but it drove us to do even more practically. The result was amazing."

"Our cameras are determined by what the character needs and the central part to this chase sequence is the banter and the relationship between Clint and Kate," Bert, real name Amber Templemore-Finlayson added. 

She then revealed the team thought at length about how to make the car chase different from others we've seen before.

"So we were thinking, how do you stay in the car? We've all seen a million car chases, there are huge franchises that do them so well on epic scales. So we were like, well, it's about the characters," the director concluded. "So what we wanted to do was keep the camera in the car. Then we thought, how fun would it be that if as that camera is turning, all the action was happening around them? And then when Kate goes out the window, of course our camera goes with her because it's led by character."

The first four episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+.

What other characters do you hope to see pop up in Hawkeye? 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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