One of the MCU’s sneakiest recurring characters returns in ‘Hawkeye’ premiere

When it comes to naming the people that have made the most appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s natural for the conversation to revolve solely around the usual suspects.

Stan Lee’s multitude of cameos obviously leads the pack, but Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Paul Bettany’s JARVIS and Vision and Don Cheadle’s Rhodey have all made between eight and eleven outings, but a very surprising name just made their seventh cameo in Disney Plus series Hawkeye.

News anchor Pat Kiernan has become the sneakiest recurring figure in MCU history, and he’s back again for the first time since Spider-Man: Far From Home. The NY1 host has shown up in plenty of movies, ranging from Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters to Liam Neeson’s The Commuter via Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but he’s quietly become an integral part of Kevin Feige’s franchise.

Now that he’s been glimpsed in a news report detailing Kate Bishop’s rampage wearing the Ronin suit in Hawkeye, we can add it to his brief showings in The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, two episodes of Daredevil, an episode of The Punisher and Far From Home, which also makes him the only name so far to have been a canonical part of both the Netflix and mainline MCU.