Clint Barton will be falling more in line with his comic book counterpart in the upcoming Hawkeye TV series. That’s true in several ways, as he’ll be gaining an apprentice in the form of Kate Bishop (played by Hailee Steinfeld) and adding more purple to his costume (though don’t expect his full-comics look). On top of that, star Jeremy Renner has now confirmed that the avenging archer will be going deaf in the Disney Plus TV show.
While speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Renner teased that all of the apocalyptic fights Barton has been involved in over the past decade have affected him and that he’ll be hard-of-hearing by the time we pick up with him in his self-titled series. As comic fans will know, this aligns with Clint’s deafness in the source material. Sure enough, Renner stated that the production team went back to the page for this show, in terms of both its visuals and story.
“Yeah, hard-of-hearing, yeah yeah,” Renner said. “So, that was implemented, which is great. … So we used the comics a lot as a basis for the look and format of the show.”
This should please fans, as comic book readers have been campaigning to have Marvel make Clint deaf in the MCU since he was introduced. Though it’s taken this long for it to happen, the studio is suddenly making serious headway with hard-of-hearing representation. November’s Eternals also features the MCU’s first deaf superhero in Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari while Alaqua Cox will play deaf heroine Echo in Hawkeye ahead of her own spinoff series.
The marketing for Hawkeye has made no secret of the fact that it’s hewing close to the comics, in particular Matt Fraction’s iconic run that introduced Kate Bishop into the Marvel Universe. The logo is pulled from those comics and the poster was even (controversially) inspired by a classic cover.
Also starring Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and Florence Pugh, Hawkeye is due to premiere its first two episodes on Disney Plus just in time for Thanksgiving on Nov. 24.
