Hailee Steinfeld is giving Tom Holland a run for his money when it comes to dropping Marvel crumbs.
The 27-year-old actress was at the red carpet event for Netflix’s Arcane Season 2 premiere in LA earlier this week when she got ambushed into answering a tricky question about her possible involvement in an upcoming Marvel movie. In a video making rounds on X, Steinfeld looked like she was completely taken aback when someone from the press asked her: “Will we see Hawkeye in Thunderbolts?”
The abrupt change in her demeanor seemingly gave away that she’s not allowed to say anything. The panic in her voice as she said, “I don’t know,” before running away on the red carpet all the more confirmed the questioner’s suspicion.
The X user who shared the recent video was also not convinced that Hailee doesn’t know the answer to the question, so they reposted a “same energy” clip from November last year showing the actress being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. In the second video, the interviewer could be heard asking the Dickinson star, “Do you know when we’re seeing Miss Kate Bishop again?” To this, Steinfeld responded with a suggestive “maybe” while slightly raising her eyebrows and smiling.
Based on the two clips, it’s obvious that Hailee isn’t the best at lying and keeping spoilers, much like Holland, who has made a reputation for being bad at keeping MCU secrets since he got cast as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
It’s been three years since Steinfeld carried her bow and arrows for her role as Kate Bishop, aka the other Hawkeye. She made her debut as the apprentice of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye in Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye mini-series for Disney+ in December 2021. Not to be confused with Lila Barton, Hawkeye/Clint Barton’s daughter who also trained with her father to be the next Hawkeye, Kate is not blood-related to the superhero, but he took her under his wing due to her potential and skills.
There have been hints that Marvel could be prepping something big for Steinfeld’s character in the MCU. In a post-credit scene in The Marvels, Kate makes a surprise appearance after Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan defeat Dar-Benn. Khan pays Kate a visit to tell her that she’s assembling a team — an offer that the latter couldn’t refuse.
From the looks of things, Marvel Studios could be setting up Steinfeld’s role to be one of the Young Avengers, which is very convenient seeing that the upcoming Thunderbolts movie will center on a group of reformed supervillains led by Black Widow’s younger sister Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh.
If Steinfeld ever makes an appearance in Thunderbolts, this would mark a reunion between Kate and Yelena, who was an antagonist in the Hawkeye mini-series. However, there’s also the possibility that Hailee was telling the truth and Kate’s sitting out this upcoming Marvel release. Alex Perez of the pop culture website The Cosmic Circus recently revealed on X that Thunderbolts will feature a mixture of Young Avengers and Champions. He also claimed that, to his knowledge, Steinfeld’s Hawkeye would not be seen in it unless they filmed another post-credit scene with her. Thunderbolts is set to hit cinemas on May 2, 2025.