Of the cinematic Avengers, Hawkeye has had the biggest problem breaking through with audiences, but he’s finally getting his due on a Disney+ series. However, ironically, it is believed that this show will be used to retire Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton as the current Hawkeye, as Hailee Steinfeld‘s Kate Bishop assumes the role. But it turns out that Renner’s character was originally slated to receive his own movie before Kevin Feige changed his mind and decided that a Disney+ series would be a better fit.
Disney CEO Bob Iger was featured in an in-depth cover story for Bloomberg Businessweek, and as part of the article, writer Devin Leonard spoke to many of Iger’s collaborators, including Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. Disney’s high-stakes Disney+ was the focus of much of the article and Feige discussed lining up the stars of the movies for the series and expressed that he was nervous about suggesting ‘Hawkeye’ to Renner, as the studio had already (unbeknownst to the public) lined him up for a solo movie.
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From Bloomberg:
Disney+ would be Marvel’s chance to tell more of those stories. In April 2018, when the cast of Avengers: Infinity War was in town for the film’s premiere, Feige convened a meeting to talk up his ideas. His audience included Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki, and Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, who portray Wanda Maximoff (aka the Scarlet Witch) and the Vision. Among other ideas, Feige laid out his plans for the Loki series and another called WandaVision, focused on the other two characters, who are romantically entwined. Everyone, he says, was stoked.
Feige was more nervous about his pitch to Jeremy Renner, who plays The Avengers’ Hawkeye. Marvel had a deal for Renner to star in a movie based on the character, but Feige wanted to turn the project into a Disney+ series. Renner turned out to be fine with the change. “He totally got it and said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” Feige recalls. (Renner didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
So it looks as if, just like in the case of ‘Black Widow’, there were plans in place to give this founding Avenger his own big-screen adventure.
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As for Steinfeld, she appeared on Thursday night’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’ on Bravo, when a caller asked her about starring in ‘Hawkeye’. Steinfeld very deliberately played dumb, claiming to not know anything about it, which led host Andy Cohen to remark, “That makes me think you’re doing it.” There has been buzz that Steinfeld’s role on Apple TV+’s ‘Dickinson’ would prevent her from appearing in ‘Hawkeye’, but now it looks as though those problems are being ironed out behind-the-scenes.
At this point, ‘Hawkeye’ is expected to arrive on Disney+ in late 2021.
Are you happy that ‘Hawkeye’ is getting a series on Disney+, or would you have preferred a movie?
