Hawkeye Head Writer Jonathan Igla Reveals Inspiration for Rogers: The Musical

By Spencer Perry

One of the many details that was nearly front and center from the trailer for Marvel's Hawkeye was a major surprise in the form of the MCU's first musical, an in-universe Broadway show based on Captain America called Rogers: The Musical. Seemingly a parody of Hamilton and other musical hits, shots of ads for the show are seen in the street on Hawkeye while some bits of a performance can also be seen in the trailer. Speaking in a new interview, series head writer Jonathan Igla revealed how the idea came about and considering what it's a parody of the answer probably will not surprise you, especially if you've been in New York the past six years.

"It was one of the most fun things," Igla told Variety at the series premiere. "Every day on my commute I drove by with my fiancé who was also my second-in-command on the show, Lisa clam. We would drive by a 'Hamilton' billboard every morning on the way to the writers' room, and one morning I just thought 'Rogers: The Musical.' And we started talking about it and it expanded. One of the great things about working for Marvel is if you have an idea that starts out small or medium, it sort of started out medium I would say, and you pitch it to them and everyone is tickled by it and everyone is excited by it. They're willing to pick it up and run with it and make it even bigger, and I'm so excited for people to see."

Academy Award nominated composers March Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who shared nominations for Mary Poppins Returns with Shaiman gaining nods for Sleepless in Seattle, Patch Adams, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut to boot.

"[Scott and I] were at an Academy Award dinner, and I'm sitting there and someone taps me on the shoulder and says, 'Excuse me, Kevin Feige would love to meet you,'" Shaiman recently told Marvel.com. "I knew who Kevin was, and I was like he wants to meet me, really? Turns out Kevin is a film score nerd. He started talking about [the scores I've written] one by one and I was like, I cannot believe this is happening. We started trading emails about scores and this and that, and when I would see [Marvel movies] I would send him an email. I guess when this idea came up for Hawkeye, for there to be a musical on Broadway, he luckily thought of us, and [Scott and I] couldn't be more ecstatic about it."

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

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