Production on the untitled Avengers 4 is now well underway.
Since Joe and Anthony Russo first yelled “action!” on the Atlanta set a few months ago, we’ve gained new insight into Black Widow’s involvement, as Scarlett Johansson’s super-agent is poised to have a run-in with the Yakuza. Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is also along for the ride, and may well assume a new alias by the time Avengers 4 rolls around in 2019.
That’s because we’ve heard that Clint Barton will ditch his traditional superhero identity and instead become the masked, samurai sword-sporting Ronin. As fans will know, Barton’s switch is comic book accurate. He actually spent a fairly long stretch under that identity, serving as Ronin on the New Avengers and during the Skrull invasion.
As such, we should expect Barton’s new alter ego to stick around well into the MCU’s Phase Four. This also leaves the door open for the character’s other comic book identities to appear at some point – Goliath, Golden Archer and even (for a brief period) Captain America.
Chalk that up as speculation for now, but a batch of new set photos have surfaced today which do add more fuel to the fire, as they give us a glimpse of Hakweye’s new look in addition to some of the returning cast members who’ll be reporting for duty alongside Renner.
Again, there’s been no confirmation that Barton will make the switch to Ronin in Avengers 4, but these photos do suggest such a thing happening. Not only that, but it would certainly explain Marvel’s decision to film scenes with the Yakuza, while fans have speculated that those Japanese extras seen wearing facial masks will turn out to be members of the Skrulls, neatly dovetailing with the events of the 1990s-set Captain Marvel. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Once Thanos has waged war on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and both Ant-Man and the Wasp and the aforementioned Captain Marvel enjoy their time in the limelight, Joe and Anthony Russo will unleash the so-far untitled Avengers 4 upon the moviegoing masses on May 3rd, 2019. That’s still an awful long way away, so until we have some firm answers for you to pour over, you can share your knee-jerk reaction to these latest set photos in the comments section below.
