Hawkeye Head Writer Explains How Disney+ Gets to Explore a Deeper Side of the Avengers Movies

By Charlie Ridgely

After an entire decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fighting with the Avengers in five big screen adventures, Clint Barton is finally getting his own story. Hawkeye, coming soon to Disney+, brings Jeremy Renner's bowman out of the shadows and into the spotlight, pairing him with younger archer Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). The Avengers movies saw heroes fighting massive aliens and ultra-intelligent androids to save all of humankind. Hawkeye, on the other hand, operates more at Clint's speed, exploring the deeper moments between all the world-ending threats.

If the entire MCU was a giant movie, the Avengers films would be the biggest and most exciting actions sequences. Hawkeye aims to exist between those grand scenes, focusing on the characters and the lives they live while the other Avengers aren't around. It's this angle that most excited head writer Jonathan Igla about the series.

"I think we're getting to see a funnier side of Clint in this show. And we're getting to see him in a mentorship role, which we hadn't really gotten to seen before," Igla told Variety at the Hawkeye premiere. "But I would say that the highlight, the thing that really comes from the comic books that mostly influenced the show is what Clint is doing when he's not with the Avengers. I'm always excited by those moments in-between the biggest missions, and that was exciting to get to dive into."

The MCU hasn't offered Hawkeye many chances to slow down and really live in his own story, which is precisely why this series was such a priority at Marvel Studios.

"All of these roles have been fairly small. And then Ultron, we got a little more. And then he just starts stealing all of these scenes. But it was always the intention to explore much more," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said during the Hawkeye press conference. "The character's history is vast. And also, the Matt Fraction comics, which I am sure people have been spending a lot of time talking about, was a big tonal inspiration for us. And seeing that and this new dynamic."

"There are moments within all of Jeremy's appearances where you see this mentor under the surface," Feige continued. "This reluctant hero, this reluctant mentor under the surface. One of my favorite scenes in all of our films is the scene with Clint and Wanda in Sokovia. Where he basically says, 'When you go out that door, you're an Avenger.' And motivates her to join the fight. And that was the kernel of how we could connect our MCU incarnation of Clint Barton into the Matt Fraction storyline in relationship with Kate Bishop."

The first two episodes of Hawkeye debut on Disney+ on November 24th.

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