Hawkeye Drops a Big Hint for Marvel’s West Coast Avengers

Marvel’s Hawkeye TV series is now streaming on Disney+, in the first two episodes of Hawkeye’s premiere showed Clint Barton (Jeremey Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) on the run in the streets of NYC, after Barton’s past catches up with him. (Mild Spoilers) After Kate accidentally comes across Clint’s old Ronin costume and dons it, there are a lot of bad guys who come looking for payback. When Kate’s apartment is compromised (read: attacked), she and Barton need a safe house to hide in. Kate happens to know a place to go: the apartment of her aunt: Moira Brandon!

As Marvel fans have been quick to explain to those asking: Moira Brandon is an obscure character who is the only noted “Honorary member” of the West Coast Avengers team. Moira was a Hollywood actress whose career had withered and dried up. Moira wanted to sell her estate in the Palos Verdes region and ended up selling to the West Coast Avengers team, who made it their official Avengers Compound on the west coast. However, when Hawkeye and his wife Mockingbird came to look at the property, they were ambushed Marvel villain Crossfire; Moira ended up saving the heroes’ lives, at the cost of her own. As she gave one last final performance (a death scene), Moira was made an honorary West Coast Avenger by Hawkeye. 

Since this new Hawkeye TV series has premiered, there’s been been a growing chorus of fans who want to see Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye fulfill his comic book legacy and lead a West Coast Avengers team in the MCU. Even Renner himself has endorsed the idea, telling Ali Plumb of BBC Radio 1: 

“I think… well look, he was the leader of the West Coast Avengers,” Renner said. “I would personally love to see him be in that sort of Captain America leader role. Actually, which, I think he would succeed in. Calling the shots and doing these types of things, right? As a quarterback, instead of being more like a wide receiver, these types of things, right? That would be really interesting, I think, to see him do.”

Marvel Studios has been quietly dropping breadcrumbs that stack up to some big new developments in the MCU, all throughout Phase 4. The introduction of Kate Bishop is just one piece of Marvel’s attempt to build a Young Avengers team, with Patriot (Eli Bradley), Kid Loki, Wiccan, Speed, and (sort of) Iron Lad all having been introduced, and Miss America on deck to debut in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

If Kate is going from Hawkeye to bigger things like her own Avengers team – why not Clint Barton? Do you want to see Hawkeye’s minor West Coast Avengers Easter egg become something more? 

Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+.