Marvel’s What If…? Preview Might Have Tom Holland as Hawkeye

Marvel’s What If…? animated series is designed to deliver audiences some truly ambitious scenarios that will likely never occur in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As fans of the various What If…? comic series know, fans are delivered stories that involve explore various changes to Marvel’s well-known mythology, both small and major. For example, T’Challa is going to be Star-Lord and Peggy Carter will be Captain Britain in the upcoming series, and now it looks like Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker might be suiting up as Hawkeye. This concept might not be confirmed, but a quick glance at the animated teaser for the series might have been hiding the secret in plain sight.

In the teaser for What If…?, the series has its own logo in a similar vein as the Marvel Studios logo which plays at the beginning of Marvel movies. However, instead of using iconic moments and characters from previous Marvel Studios movies, the animated What If…? logo seems to pull images from upcoming episodes and teases what we might expect. One of those teasers seems to have Tom Holland’s Peter Parker appearing as Hawkeye. The speculation began to pick up some steam on social media on Monday, so it’s worth having a look at what all the chatter is about.

Check out a freeze-frame from the What If…? trailer captured in a screenshot below!

This seems fitting as Marvel plans to use the cast members from the MCU for the best accuracy and Tom Holland is wildly popular among fans, although that image could be an animated version of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye or a different version of the character on missions completely different than that of those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Of course, Holland portrays Spider-Man, a Sony-owned character. With the character and his titular movies being Sony properties, Spider-Man movies do not appear on Disney+. However, the loop hole here might be in the fact that Tom Holland won’t be playing Spider-Man. He would be playing Hawkeye. It’s unclear, if this is indeed Peter Parker, whether or not the use of Peter Parker on Disney+ is part of the agreement between Disney and Sony or is outright allowed. The use of the character being animated might also be a factor which could permit Disney to use the character.

Marvel’s updated release schedule sees Black Widow dropping in theaters on November 6th. It is followed Eternals on February 12, 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 5 2021, Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 on November 5, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on February 11, 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on March 25, 2022, Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022, and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Disney+ also has The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If…? Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight on the way.