Why ‘Hawkeye’ included Ant-Man in ‘Rogers: The Musical’

Warning: This article contains light spoilers about a plot point in Hawkeye.

When it comes to the Disney Plus show Hawkeye, most fans would agree it does a great job of giving a much-deserved spotlight on Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, who has been a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for over a decade, but hasn’t yet been granted his own solo movie.

Hawkeye first premiered in 2011’s Thor and subsequently had a more substantial role in 2012’s Avengers, where he was among the earth’s mightiest heroes defending their world against aliens in the so-called Battle of New York.

Warning: Spoilers to follow.

At the beginning of the Disney Plus show, Renner’s Clint Barton attends a Broadway musical with his family, based on the life of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, entitled Rogers: The Musical.

The fictional stage play, which featured dollar-store versions of all of our favorite Avengers, including Hawkeye himself, was full of elaborate dance choreography and catchy show tunes, but was a bit lacking in terms of MCU accuracy.

One example: Ant-Man is part of the musical, even though the story centers largely around the events which unfolded in Avengers in 2012, years before that character made his debut in the MCU.

We’re now learning from the co-composer of “Save the City” from Rogers: The Musical, featured in the finale, that including Ant-Man was to further highlight Hawkeye’s dissatisfaction with being so often relegated to the sidelines in people’s remembrance of the Battle for New York.

“That came from [Hawkeye Executive Producer and Director] Rhys [Thomas] and Marvel, as something to further aggravate Hawkeye as he watched the show,” co-composer Marc Shaiman explained, in an interview with Inverse, “and also as a comment on how movies and articles and people always get something wrong.”

Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman are both Broadway legends, having collaborated on classics such as Hairspray and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so we for one would be super stoked to have Rogers: The Musical take the stage for real as a full-length musical one day.

Until then, check out Hawkeye on Disney Plus to get two different glimpses of the fictional musical.