When ‘Hawkeye’ Met Kate & Other Teases From the Disney+ Marvel Series
Preview
So much better than socks! Marvel’s latest Disney+ series, Hawkeye, is just the present we were hoping to find in our TV stockings.
In the holiday tale set in snowy New York City, Clint Barton, aka the Avengers’ retired heroic archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), gives a truly great gift, passing the bow and arrow on to a new generation. The recipient: Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), a young warrior who worships the Avenger and spent years training herself to be like him.
“From a young age, Kate’s North Star was her love for her idol, Hawkeye,” executive producer Trinh Tran says. “To her, Clint is a hero and a mere human doing superhuman things, but above everything else, he always stands up for the little guy and protects those in need. Kate followed her idol’s footsteps and put herself through intense training, studying various sports, including archery and martial arts. By the time our series starts, Kate is incredibly skilled and is looking for ways to put those skills to good use. That’s when she runs into Clint, who has no clue who she is and doesn’t really understand her obsession with him.”
Like the 2012-15 22-issue Marvel comics by Matt Fraction and David Aja, Hawkeye is fueled by both action and punchy tête-à-têtes between Kate and Clint. Tran calls the show “grounded and funny, packed to the brim with Christmas spirit.” The six episodes take place after the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame when the five-year disappearance of half the population—including Clint’s wife and kids—was reversed. “With his family back, Clint is doing his utmost to put the past behind him and live his retired life to the fullest,” Tran notes. “He has yet to truly deal with the consequences of his actions as Ronin.”
And just like Clint, the world around him is also in the process of healing. “The city has, in many ways, recuperated and continued thriving,” says Tran, “but the same can’t be said for all its citizens.”
Among those citizens are plenty of new faces, including Echo/Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a deaf woman with martial arts skills (“She is resilient and a strong leader, and inadvertently gets mixed up with our heroes,” teases Tran); Clint’s mentor, the Swordsman/Jack Duquesne (Better Call Saul‘s Tony Dalton); a killer who goes by a curious moniker, the Clown (Fra Fee); and Kate’s mother, Eleanor (Vera Farmiga). Also watch for the return of assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh, reprising her role from this summer’s blockbuster Black Widow). But let’s face it, we really just want to see Lucky, Hawkeye’s pizza-loving golden retriever.
Hawkeye, Series Premiere, Wednesday, Nov. 24, Disney+
