Hawkeye Trailer Gives Clint Barton Hearing Aids

The first trailer for , giving Marvel fans the best look yet at the upcoming Disney+ series and there was plenty in the just under two-minute trailer to get excited about. There’s “Rogers The Musical” that fans are wishing was a thing in real life, the Die Hard vibes the trailer is giving, Lucky’s appearance, and even the group of Eastern European gangsters – affectionately dubbed the “Tracksuit Mafia” by fans – from Matt Fraction and David Aja’s comics run. But there’s another detail in the Hawkeye trailer that may shed a bit of light on what Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) has been dealing with since we last saw him as well as deliver another element from the comics: Clint appears to have hearing aids.

In the trailer, which you can check out for yourself in the video player above, there are multiple moments where you can see what appears to be a hearing aid in Clint’s left ear. It’s especially visible around the 26-second mark when he’s talking to his daughter.While it is possible that the small device could simply be a communicator of some fashion as we don’t have the full context for it in the trailer, it does look an awful lot like a hearing aid and it’s something that fits with Clint’s comics history.

On the pages of Marvel comics, Clint Barton has been portrayed as deaf a few times. In 1983’s Hawkeye #4, writer Mark Gruenwald’s story saw Hawkeye deafened when Crossfire captured him and Mockingbird, testing a machine called the Undertaker on them. The machine could cause anyone exposed to it to go into a violent rage and to stop the effects of the machine, Hawkeye put a sonic arrowhead in his mouth. The trick worked, but also blew out his eardrums, leaving the archer deaf and requiring him to wear a hearing aid. His hearing was later restored in “House of M”, but in Hawkeye Vol. 4 #15, Hawkeye is rendered deaf again when The Clown jammed Clint’s own arrows into both of his ears. Clint’s deafness became a major element of the character’s experience, though that canonical deafness is something that’s never been brought into the MCU.

If those are hearing aids Clint is seen wearing in the Hawkeye trailer, it could make for an interesting element in his relationship with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). The appearance of Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez/Echo – a character who is also deaf – could also factor into how Hawkeye deals with his own deafness, depending on where Clint is in his journey.One thing that is for certain, if Hawkeye does explore Clint’s deafness, it will deliver on something that both comic fans and members of the deaf community have been hoping to see for a long time.

You can check out the official synopsis for Hawkeye below.

“Disney+ and Marvel Studios invite you on an unexpected holiday getaway with Hawkeye, a new series set in post-blip New York City. Former Avenger Clint Barton has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. Possible? Maybe with the help of Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old archer with dreams of becoming a Super Hero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.”

Starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, Hawkeye also features Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. Helmed by Rhys Thomas and directing duo Bert and Bertie, “Hawkeye” debuts exclusively on Disney+ on November 24, 2021.