Despite being announced along with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki, news on Hawkeye has been thin on the ground. The show was absent from Disney Plus’ recent Super Bowl spot and there were rumors that it’d been postponed indefinitely in the wake of the domestic abuse allegations against star Jeremy Renner. As such, while Hawkeye was originally set to begin shooting in July, it was quietly removed from the studio’s 2020 production schedule in early January.
But it seems that Disney still has confidence in the star and the project, as insider Charles Murphy of Murphy’s Multiverse is reporting that it’s back on for a September shoot and still targeting a release in the Fall of 2021. This long wait may disappoint fans of Clint Barton though, as he’s now at the back of the Marvel Studios TV production queue, with Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk all set to shoot before Hawkeye.
Precise details on the show aren’t known, but the basic concept will be Hawkeye training his protégée Kate Bishop. Marvel Studios and Disney are still pursuing Hailee Steinfeld for the latter role, but have reportedly also started looking at other actors if she’s unavailable. It’s expected that the series will establish Bishop as the MCU’s new Hawkeye for a future Avengers team, as well as give Clint Barton a satisfying conclusion to his long story arc.
I would like to think the Hawkeye show will also address all those people he murdered as Ronin, as his last appearance in Avengers: Endgame kind of shuffled that under the rug when he became a hero again. I suppose being a crucial part of saving the universe from Thanos buys you a bit of good guy credit, though.