Marvel’s Hawkeye TV series is drawing a lot of inspiration from the seminal Matt Fraction/David Aja comics run, although it’s not afraid to make a few big innovations along the way. Case in point, the character of Kazi is very different from the clown-faced freelance assassin from the source material. The MCU’s Kazi is the lieutenant and closest confidante of Tracksuit Mafia boss, Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). With two episodes to go, Kazi is still loyal to Echo, but that could change if she continues to pursue her reckless vendetta against Ronin.
While speaking to The Direct, Irish star Fra Fee opened up about Kazi’s complex relationship with Maya. First of all, he dropped an interesting tidbit about the character’s origins. As it turns out, he’s known Maya since childhood and was another student of the karate class we saw her attend in episode 3.
“I’ll be forgiven for saying this because I believe one of our writers had tweeted about it,” Fee revealed. “But Kazi is actually at the karate class when Maya is there. So they do have a very long history together. They find themselves in this surrogate family, ya know, the Tracksuit Mafia. I expect that it means a lot more to Kazi, the TSM.“
While Maya simply sees the TSM as a means to an end, the tools with which she can get vengeance for her father’s murder at Ronin’s hands, Kazi cares what happens to the organization as “it’s all he knows”, according to Fee:
“It is only until Maya’s dad is killed that she uses their manpower to try and seek revenge. The TSM is extremely important to Kazi. It’s his life foundation. It’s all he knows. So, whenever Maya manages to find herself above Kazi in the pecking order, that is a tough pill for him to swallow. But at the same time, they have this past together. And he is loyal to her.”
Fee concluded by teasing that there’s a clear conflict of loyalties going on within Kazi:
“There are feelings of respect and care and loyalty to her as well. And that’s where the real dynamic is really interesting. He is being dual loyalty.”
It’s unclear if Kazi’s backstory will be explored over the final two episodes of the season, or if this detail about his childhood history with Maya was something that was supposed to have been made clear in episode 3 but was ultimately cut. At the very least, we can presumably expect him to pick a side between Maya and the men of the TSM in episode 5 or 6. Whether he remains loyal to Maya or not will likely determine if he’ll appear in the upcoming Echo spinoff.
Hawkeye continues Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
