The rumors that Hawkeye would be abandoning his old codename to be known as Ronin have been swirling around the internet for about a year now, and though the character didn’t make an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, we know he’s set to play a big role in Avengers 4.
Despite multiple pictures of Jeremy Renner in a slightly silly new hairdo looking very serious though, we still don’t have much of an idea of how he’s going to appear in the upcoming film. That might be coming to an end, though, if this slightly blurry bit of concept art proves to be true.
Tweeted by @NoticiasGeekTV and seen below, the picture contrasts Ronin’s look from the comics with an impressionistic look at the character in the movie. With definite influences from samurai armor, it seems as though the hero’s traded his bow in for a sword, though he’s kept the yellow and black color scheme familiar to the comic book version. And while the blurriness of the image could be an artistic decision, there’s a small chance it could also be a visual representation of some kind of stealth camouflage.
For those not up to speed with the source material, Ronin’s an alias used by four characters in Marvel Comics, generally when they want to achieve something that’s a little more brutal and bloodthirsty than their goody-two-shoes Avengers codenames can handle. With speculation building that what brings Hawkeye back into action is Thanos’ Snap killing his beloved wife and children, it seems like it’d be a good fit for a man now driven by rage and grief (which would also explain the bad hairdo).
Given that the first Infinity War trailer landed in November 2017, there’s a decent chance we’ll get to see some of Clint Barton’s new persona in Avengers 4 before the year is out. As always, watch this space for more.
