Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Hawkeye: Everything we know about Marvel’s Disney+ series

Clint Barton may be retiring, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe won’t be without a Hawkeye. In Hawkeye, the Marvel spinoff headed to Disney+, Jeremy Renner will return as the MCU’s resident archer to pass off his bow and arrows — and the Hawkeye code name — to a new generation.

On November 24, Jeremy Renner will officially begin the process of passing the bow to Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop when the first two episodes of the new series hit Disney+. Here’s everything that we know about Hawkeye so far.

Little MCU tie-in

Speaking with Games Radar, director Rhys Thomas described Hawkeye as “definitely a stand-alone thing.” “But yes, we know their past, and obviously what happened in Endgame,” Thomas said. “We know in these first two episodes that Clint’s dealing with the fallout of that.”

He went on to add, “It’s definitely a stand-alone thing in that we have this Christmas setting, and this very fixed timeframe story. But it being the MCU, of course, it all connects in some way as well. And we’ve got new characters, and this was teed up at the end of Black Widow as well. And so everything is always a nice entry point. But I think for the most part, the story is its own little world.”

TV spots and clips

In the first official TV spots, Vera Farmiga is confirmed as Kate Bishop’s mom, Eleanor Bishop, and Kate thinks Hawkeye is the least popular Avenger due to “branding issues.”

Friends Partners | Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye | Disney+
“Branding Issues” Clip | Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye | Disney+
Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye - Official “Tracksuit Mafia” Clip (2021) Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld

Official release date

Hawkeye‘s official Twitter account released a new promo and revealed the release date for the first two episodes at the same time. The new series debuts November 24 on Disney+.

Kick off the holidays with the first two episodes of Marvel Studios' #Hawkeye, and start streaming on November 24 on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/SpLua8gh0W

— Hawkeye (@hawkeyeofficial) October 14, 2021

First trailer

Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye | Official Trailer | Disney+

The first trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series has arrived! We’ve finally got our first footage of Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, the Hawkeye-obsessed young woman who will inherit Clint Barton’s bow in what looks almost like Marvel’s attempt at a Christmas series. It’s the most action-packed, Christmas-themed trailer you’ll see today.

Photos and video from the set

Any Marvel movie filming in New York City is bound to get a lot of attention, but Hawkeye seems to have fully immersed itself in the city, with an enormous amount of amateur photo and video hitting the web. Check out some of the footage and photos below, including the first look at Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton in costume.

pic.twitter.com/qeesgfAhAm

— Cosmic Marvel (@cosmic_marvel) December 12, 2020

🎥 IG | richardhenrynyc: “Right outside my building last night. #marvel #hawkeyepic.twitter.com/hBqgl73jm7

— Hailee Steinfeld News (@HSteinfeldNews) December 12, 2020

🎥 | Hailee Steinfeld filming “Hawkeye” on December 11, 2020, in New York. (via deadboy_66 on TikTok) https://t.co/FTMlLqRYG4

— Hailee Steinfeld News (@HSteinfeldNews) December 12, 2020

Here are the first photos of Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton in costume on the set of the upcoming Marvel series #Hawkeye! https://t.co/KviEjZfqfB

— JustJared.com (@JustJared) December 11, 2020

Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld film #Hawkeye at Rockefeller Center and make a toy shop stop – see the latest pictures from the set https://t.co/2x21cbDyrP

— JustJared.com (@JustJared) December 10, 2020

Production begins

Production notices around Brooklyn reveal that Hawkeye begins shooting in the first week of December. (Note: Anchor Point is a pseudonym for the show.)

Disney+ Hawkeye show gonna be doing some filming in downtown Brooklyn next week. pic.twitter.com/J2bWdr9TQ4

— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) November 26, 2020

Shortly after this announcement, our first set footage began to roll out. First, of Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld (playing Hawkeye’s successor, Kate Bishop) running into the subway. Then, later, we got our first glimpses of Steinfeld in full new-Hawkeye costume.

🚨 Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfield e Lucky no set de "Hawkeye" pic.twitter.com/dFRQxjcUzr

— Marvel News (@BRMarvelNews) December 2, 2020

Hailee Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner seen on the set of #Hawkeye on the Lower East Side, New York#Marvel #DisneyPlus

She's in the Kate Bishop outfit 🏹

4 MQ Photos. pic.twitter.com/PWFXUJGGAW

— XRBishop (@CreamOrScream) December 8, 2020

Concept art

Hawkeye is still a long way off, but artist Andy Park helped bring a little life to the project by sharing concept art of Kate Bishop as she’ll appear in the Disney+ series.

I hear some people are having MCU withdrawals. I feel ya. Waiting is tough I know! Here’s a little something- a concept design illustration I did for the upcoming Hawkeye @disneyplus show. This was seen on the “Expanding the Universe” featurette on Disney+ #hawkeye #katebishop pic.twitter.com/wDPGwJNNBQ

— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 3, 2020

The star

Marvel is bringing in some impressive star power for Hawkeye, with Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld offered the lead role in the series (according to Variety). Steinfeld is expected to portray Kate Bishop, the teenage girl who adopted the archer’s code name in the popular Marvel Comics series Hawkeye and went on to become a member of the Young Avengers superhero team.

Paramount Pictures

No stranger to superhero and genre fare, Steinfeld recently played the lead role in the positively reviewed Transformers spinoff, Bumblebee, and voiced one of the main characters in the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated feature. Previously, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in 2010’s True Grit.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Steinfeld described Bishop as “a badass.” “As I’m in the process of developing her, I’m working with some incredible filmmakers that are helping me bring her to life,” Steinfeld commented. “I can’t wait for people just to see how we are interpreting this character through the comics. In her own sort of ways, she’s such a badass. There’s no denying that. She’s so smart and witty and quick, and her physical ability to do so many things is through the roof. It’s really tested me, and it’s kept me going through quarantine, I will say, it’s given me a reason to stay with it.”

Release date and logo

At Comic-Con International 2019, Marvel unveiled its Phase 4 plans, including when we can expect to see Hawkeye grace the silver screen. According to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Hawkeye will debut in fall 2021, around the same time as Thor: Love and Thunder.

During the presentation, Marvel also shared Hawkeye‘s logo, which should look familiar to dedicated comic readers.

What a fun line up @marvel so happy to be on this ride #cominginhot #2021 pic.twitter.com/pDC8tcrL0H

— Jeremy Renner (@JeremyRenner) July 21, 2019

Yes, that’s the same logo that was used on Matt Fraction and David Aja’s award-winning Hawkeye series, on which the show will be based.

The cast

Jeremy Renner has played Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2011, when the character made an uncredited cameo in Thor. He’s appeared in five Marvel movies, including three of four Avengers flicks (the character was on house arrest during Avengers: Infinity War) and Captain America: Civil War (an appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was cut for scheduling reasons). It’s only fitting he’d get his own series.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Renner won’t be swinging into action alone, however. At Marvel’s big Comic-Con presentation, Feige confirmed that Hawkeye’s protégé would be none other than Kate Bishop, just like in the comics. Bishop debuted in Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung’s Young Avengers #1 in 2005 and assumed the Hawkeye name in issue #12 (Clint was dead around this time). Since then, Kate has played a supporting role in the Young Avengers books, big crossover events, and Clint’s own comics. She co-headlined Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye and got her own comic in 2017.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Rumors started circulating about actress Hailee Steinfeld being cast as Bishop as early as October but nothing was confirmed until recently. Despite set footage of Steinfeld in Bishop’s trademark purple, she didn’t confirm the casting until Disney’s 2020 Investor Day on December 10, 2020.

Marvel also announced that additional cast members include Vera Farmiga, Fra Free, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, aka Echo.

The plot

Other than the general premise — Clint Barton trains Kate Bishop to take over as Hawkeye — details about Hawkeye are pretty sparse. Cut Marvel some slack: The show is over a year away. Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on Hawkeye, however, lasted from 2012 to 2015. It’s considered one of the best Marvel comics of the modern era, and it’s going to be the basis for the Hawkeye television show, so we do have a rough idea of what’s in store.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye was a story about what the famous superhero got up to between world-ending threats. As the recap pages explained, “This is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger. That’s all you need to know.” The series’ ongoing plot was a modest tale about Clint’s attempts to save an apartment building and its tenants from the Russian mob. Character development and humor, not the action, drove the story.

The series’ heart was the relationship between Clint and Kate (and their dog, Lucky, aka “Pizza Dog”), with the grounded young heroine serving as an excellent foil to the in-over-his-head Avenger. If Marvel is going to get Hawkeye right, it needs to recapture that chemistry. More than almost any other MCU project, casting is going to make or break this one.

Editors' Recommendations

Chris Gates
Contributor
Christopher Gates lives in Los Angeles, CA and writes about movies, TV, video games, and other pop culture curiosities. In…
Which Marvel villains should be in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man 4?
Tom Holland as Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."

The MCU has plenty of upcoming projects that fans are excited about, but a potential fourth entry in Tom Holland's Spider-Man series is near the list's top. 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Holland's Peter entering a new phase in his life. Forgotten by the world and with no one left by his side, Peter is now closer to the perpetually down-on-his-luck version from the comics that fans have come to know and love. The ending is the perfect setup for a new Spidey adventure, with Spider-Man acting as the street-level hero he was always supposed to be. But who should he fight in his new adventure, especially now that he has no Avengers or Avengers-adjacent allies by his side?

Well, the possibilities are limitless. After all, Spider-Man has some of the best and most iconic villains in Marvel comics, and while many have already appeared in the Web Slinger's numerous live-action projects, some remain untouched by the film industry. From fearsome crime bosses to chameleonic supervillains, these infamous foes would make worthy enemies for Holland's Spider-Man.
Chameleon

Read more
All the upcoming MCU movies we know about
The title logo for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

Right now, Marvel Studios seem to have more movies in its lineup than it can handle. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to branch out with alternate timelines and new characters, the studio has plenty more stories to share with all the true believers out there.

From wacky spacefaring adventures to grounded political thrillers, here are all the upcoming Marvel movies that are known so far.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)

Read more
How to watch the Marvel movies in order
avengers endgame trailer marvel cinematic universe poster 3 2 crop

Now concluding its fourth phase, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has 30 movies, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever the most recent release in November 2022. There are many more movies in the works, as well as a whole host of shows, including Moon Knight, WandaVision, Loki, and Hawkeye now out on Disney+. With so much content coming out at different times, covering different time periods, it's tough to understand the order of events.

Want to watch the MCU in chronological order? You're in the right place. We've organized the movie in story order, so your watching experience can be as seamless as possible. We've also included some quick movie summaries for a refresher (consider this your spoiler warning).

Read more