Will Avengers: Infinity War signal the advent of Ronin?
That’s just one of the major Marvel-related theories currently gaining traction online, and Jeremy Renner has only gone ahead and fanned the flames of speculation with several cryptic Instagram posts in recent weeks. In fact, it’s all but confirmed at this point 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 alias, 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 according to the actor himself, Avengers: Infinity War is going to do some “wondrous things” with the character.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post in a recent interview, Renner briefly touched on the whole Ronin thing, and while he couldn’t confirm it, he did say the following:
“I can’t get into the theories … I know [Ronin] is in the comics, but otherwise I don’t really know anything about that stuff. We’re doing a lot of really wondrous things that I’ve always wanted to do with this character though … I think everyone will be very pleased when they find out what happens.”
So, what exactly are these “wondrous things” Renner mentions? Well, again, we don’t know for sure, but all signs point to a transformation into Ronin, and you can bet that’s something fans would love to see.
Initially dreamed up by comic book duo Brian Michael Bendis and Joe Quesada, Ronin is essentially another alias for Clint Barton who comes into play soon after the events of Marvel’s Civil War. Both Moon Knight and Echo are mentioned in the comics, too, though we can’t imagine Joe and Anthony Russo will dedicate much time to the character’s fantastical elements; instead, this looks to be a fun expansion of what is arguably the most underused hero in the entire MCU.
And it’s now all but confirmed that he’ll be making an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War come 2018. After that, expect the war against Thanos and his so-called Black Order (see: Corvus Glave, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw and Black Dwarf) to weave its way into Avengers 4 in two years’ time.