Hawkeye Disney+ Preview and Breakdown with SPOILER Theories

    Welcome back to HLS Entertainment! Today we are going to be going over absolutely EVERYTHING you need to know before watching Hawkeye, Marvel Studios' newest show that premieres on Disney+ November 24th. First bit of info, the first TWO episodes will be dropping that day. This show seemingly does not many old faces, so we will focus on all of the potential new characters to know, and maybe some surprise ones that we have dreamed to return for years. We will discuss the comic series this show is going to be heavily based on, and using it and trailers as a road map discussing where the plot of this show will go! By the way I will be doing a weekly episode recap and theory blog so be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes!

    Now as always, why should you listen to me? Because I have a VERY strong record calling Marvel shows and films. Here are the breakdowns I put out before, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter  Soldier, Loki, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals, my track record speaks for itself. Read one, two, or all of those and see that I know what I am talking about and let us move forward and breakdown Hawkeye! I will warn you now, I might possibly call a lot of things correctly in the plot breakdown so SPOILERS. I do not have any special insider information I just love theorizing like everyone else, I just happen to be pretty decent at it. On to the breakdowns!

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MCU

Locations to Know

NYC at Christmas

    Pretty straight forward, I do not think this show leaves this city at all for the main story. This might be our first pure New York City story that I want us to get for Spidey soon. Anything outside of the city will be flashbacks or phone calls.

Characters to Know

Clint Barton / Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner

    Jeremy Renner first appeared as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye in 2011's Thor. It was originally more of a really obvious Easter egg having "Barton" appear in the film as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before setting him up to continue in the role. From there he went on to appear in Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), and now he is finally getting the spotlight in his own show (kind of).

    So let us check in where Clint Barton is. Guilt ridden about Natasha's death, coming back from the darkness of being Ronin for five years, possible marital issues, going deaf, and desperately wanting to retire. There is a reason we focused on two specific Avengers after Hulk snapped and brought everyone back. We focused on the two most grounded humans, Scott Lang and Clint Barton. Speaking in broad terms the rest of the Avengers are soldiers, gods, aliens etc. but at this moment these two are the only two "humans" in the room. These are family men who have missed a lot, no one more than Clint Barton. He had to watch his wife and three children get dusted right before his eyes. Hawkeye has always been self aware that he is just a man with a bow not a godlike being like some of his teammates, and there was nothing he could do to save his family. That is why after the snap, we focus in on him receiving a phone call from his wife Laura. That is the moment he stopped being Ronin and became Hawkeye once again. I imagine that moment could also have been when he began to lose his hearing, with that single BOOM.

    Now Scott Lang was able to put his helmet back on before the explosion, Clint Barton was the lone person not superpowered not wearing a helmet. I believe this could have been the moment where he begins to lose his hearing. Now we just got the first deaf superhero with Makkari in Eternals, and now we will be getting even more with Hawkeye losing his hearing just like the comics. 

Kate Bishop / Hawkeye - Hailee Steinfeld

    Kate Bishop is not really a new character in the comics. She has been around since April 2005, where she first appeared in Young Avengers #1. Just to get ahead of this in case you are new here, when breaking down these characters this is based on what to expect for this show specifically, and then I will say "in the comics" when I specifically talking about them not the show. Kate having been raised by a very wealthy family she grew up with the opportunity to be trained or learn how to become a pretty decent fencer and an excellent archer. In the comics she had an incident that led to her wanting to be trained to defend herself but I am not sure we touch on that in this short season. 

   

    Kate seems to be a gigantic Hawkeye fan. Clint is her inspiration, just a normal person no powers but still a superhero. Kate wanted to be like that, so what does she do? Trains to be like him and steals/buys his old suit. Kate is about to be around for a long time, so get used to the incredible Hailee Steinfeld. We have been talking about in these breakdowns over and over again about how the Young Avengers are coming, and now we have arguably the biggest Young Avenger co-leading a show. This show is not called Clint Barton, it is called Hawkeye and Kate is about to be our new Hawkeye.

Eleanor Bishop - Vera Farmiga

    Eleanor Bishop is mother of Kate Bishop. In the comics, spoiler alert, her parents are not great people. But more on that in the plot breakdown. I believe she is going to be single in this show having Kate's father Derek to be the one who is presumed dead. The Bishops are very wealthy people with some very strong connections expect them to be important.

Laura Barton - Linda Cardellini

    Linda Cardellini is one of my favorite actresses that every time I see her I am like, why isn't she in more stuff? Just does good work. In Hawkeye she will reprising her role as Laura Barton, wife of Clint Barton and mother of Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel. She first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron back in 2015. She really has not been given much more characterization as she has barely had screen time. I will be very happy for that to change in this show. But, from what we have seen she is a very loving mother and a caring wife. She supports Clint's Avenging whole heartedly, and loves him and their children very much. 

Lila Barton - Ava Russo

    Oldest daughter of Clint and Laura Barton. This is the girl we saw at the beginning of Endgame with Clint as he was teaching/training her to shoot during their family picnic. Fun fact, look at the last name that is Winter Soldier/Civil War/Infinity War and Endgame co-director Joe Russo's daughter!

Yelena Belova - Florence Pugh

    Okay, here is where we start to get into some tricky ones. We do not know how much of the show Florence Pugh's Yelena will be in, only that she is confirmed to reprise her role from Black Widow (2021). So if you have not seen Black Widow, you definitely should get on that before this show starts, it is available on Diseny+! But spoilers for her character below skip past this if you do not want to be spoiled.

    At the end of Black Widow we see Yelena at Natasha's grave and she was approached by a certain shady character that told her that her sister's death was caused by Hawkeye. Now I am sure back on Earth unless you are a direct team member or family member of the Avengers it would be pretty impossible to get the full story of what happened, BUT this feels like a purposeful set up.

Maya Lopez / Echo - Alqua Cox

    Alqua Cox will be bringing the character Echo to life in this show for the very first time in live action to my knowledge. A character with an interesting backstory I believe we will not see in this show aside from hints, as she is getting her own show on Disney+!  Now I do not fault you if you are not an active comic reader but she recently has been a VERY big deal being chosen as the host of the Phoenix Force that usually occupied X-Men member Jean Grey. 

    In the comics and possibly this show her backstory is this briefly. She is a Native American character whose father was killed by Kingpin, Kingpin raised her like she was his own per her father's last wish. When her father died he left a bloody handprint on her face which she replicates with white paint when she becomes Echo. She has very strong ties to Matthew Murdock aka Daredevil (hint hint). Her powers are primarily being an outstanding hand to hand fighter (she has easily taken down Matt before), but she also has photographic reflexes similar to Taskmaster.

    One very important thing possibly to this show is she was once Ronin. She used the same costume and moniker that we saw Clint use in Avengers Endgame and what Kate seems to be using in this show. Maybe Kate stole it from her?

Tracksuit Draculas / Mafia

    Bro, I was about to use a screenshot from the trailer like all those who have been shown in them so far but bro I had to get a point across bro. They say bro a lot, it is stupid and hilarious. They are the mafia family that is ground level no name thugs that we will be dealing with a lot in this show. They are going to be working for and the henchmen of someone else.. hidden in the shadows.

Kazimierz Kazimierczak / The Clown - Fra Fee

    What do you call a notorious hitman that no one has heard of? Well that is basically who this is in the comics. I have heard they have changed the character and they are doing a new take on him though so I am not going to dive too much into him. I imagine he can still be a part of the mysterious criminal business organization that is a part of the Matt Fraction run, but has just aged down the character to face off against Kate? Possibly.

William Lopez - Zahn McClarnon

    William Lopez is the father of Maya Lopez aka Echo. We do not know how long he will be in the show, I imagine it is a very short stint before he is brought back for the Echo show where he can be fleshed out even more. I do want to note this is NOT a screenshot from the show as he has not been shown.

Jack Duquesne / The Swordsman - Tony Dalton

    This is the man who trained Clint Barton in the comics. He and a character called Trickshot were performers at circuses and carnivals. The pair met Clint and saw his potential as an archer and trained him to be an act along with Jack Duquesne's mastery of knives, swords, and other weapons. If you ever wondered why the sharpshooter with a bow Hawkeye "suddenly" was a master swordsman in Endgame, this is the man behind that. Clint was trained to be one from a young age. Not really a pure villain in a lot of runs, the Swordsman does have a soft side, but I am not sure how they will choese to portray him in this yet.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine - Julia Louis-Dreyfus

    In this section and the two below we are going to talk about the few characters that we have no confirmation for but might be revealed. I think Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is one of those characters. Everyone knows Yelena will be in it, she is confirmed, but why not the woman with a purple streak in her hair who sent her? 

    Based off the post credit scene Yelena has been working for Val for quite some time. But what does that mean?? We do not officially know. Last we saw Yelena in Black Widow before the credits she was with her parents escaping with the surviving now unbrainwashed Widows. I believe Val is going to be revealed to be partnered with General Ross and running his Thunderbolts team. But Val hasn't exactly always been a great person in the comics, and we know this mission she is sending Yelena on is already "misinformed" at best blaming Hawkeye for Natasha's death.

Wilson Fisk / Kingpin - Vincent D'Onofrio

    Now this is the big one. We have absolutely nothing but speculation here. I told you Echo's father was killed by Kingpin. Another big piece of information that hints at this is that the criminal organization in the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comic book run that this show is based on, Wilson Fisk had a strong hand in leading it. Rumors are currently going wild with certain Marvel Netflix actors returning to their roles, and the entire cast of Daredevil deserves to return. Vincent's Wilson is only second to Charlie Cox's Matt in those I want to return the most.. and that is a VERY close race. Fisk can easily be revealed to be running the Tracksuit Draculas from a far, or be a business associate of the Bishops.

Madame Masque - ?

    I have been harping on Phase Four being filled with misdirection and I think this show will be no different. I am almost 100% positive Madame Masque will be in this show. She is a very mysterious character who has faced off with Kate Bishop many times (FYI that is Kate on the right). We have a few candidates as to who she could be portrayed by, but who will it be? 

Plot Breakdown

    This is the MCU's first true foray into the old class of Avengers welcoming in and teaching the new since Spider-Man's introduction in Civil War. We can talk Young Avengers Easter Eggs all day but this is our first actual portrayal of one of the characters being a hero in Kate Bishop. Expect a fun buddy cop Christmas romp. This show will be filled with all the "I'm too old for this ****" comedy of young and old heroes paired together as well as some harder reflection on topics of hearing loss and the past catching up to you. I want to remind you this is going to be how I see the plot going based off the trailers and the comic run it is based on.

    The show seems to start off with Clint Barton taking his three kids to New York City to see the Rodgers musical on Broadway. Maybe this is a premiere and he was invited? I doubt it, I believe this is more likely a VERY popular musical in universe akin to how popular Hamilton is for us.

    While in New York City, Clint sees a news report of a mysterious hooded person taking out low level criminals on the streets of NYC. Clint recognizes the uniform immediately, it is his. During what is called in universe "The Blip", the five years jump after Thanos' snap, Clint Barton distraught at losing his family took up the mantle of Ronin. As Ronin he traveled the world killing many horrible criminals around the world. Clint was obviously in a terrible headspace as he essentially became his own version of the Punisher. Trying to get rid of evil in the world by killing it off in a murderous rage. We do not know exactly how long he did this, but we do know it did involve the Cartel in Mexico. More on that in a second.

    Once Clint sees this image of someone using his outfit he knows he has to stop them and get it back. But what happened to it? Maybe he gave it to the government, maybe he just threw it away. I am not sure but it ends up in the hands of none other than Kate Bishop. Kate is a huge fan of Hawkeye and wants to take up the mantle now that he is basically retired for the third time.

    Clint sends his kids back home, maybe Laura drives up to get them? I can not tell but his oldest son Cooper might be old enough to drive them home? Either way,  Clint is on the hunt. Clint goes out and finds and confronts Kate. During this confrontation I believe she was in the middle of one of her "missions", stopping a petty crime done by the Tracksuit Draculas/Mafia. They get attacked by them Clint fights them off protecting her and stopping her from helping. They escape back to her home base of operation, a loft above a pizza place. 

    They discuss what all is going on, she tells him about her training, wanting to be his "ward" and fight along side him. He tells her he is retired and she is too young. She explains that something else big is going down and he tells her partially about the history of that suit and why she cannot have it. This is when the TSDs find them and start throwing Molotov cocktails. This is the moment we see in the trailer. 

    This is where Clint eventually goes out to take them by himself, they bring more guys. Clint gets captured and Kate tracks them down to rescue him. This is where we see Kate shooting on the rooftop and falling through the skylight to save him. After fighting their way out it is now morning and we get the big car chase scene (and Clint sadly not going for the red Challenger like he owns and this shootout happens in in the comic)

     I believe during this shootout is where Echo shows up. The pair eventually escape on the bridge where they jump off together and swing down onto a running train. Clint decides he is going to take them out and Kate wants to help. Clint says it is too dangerous and jokes they will have to ask her mother. Kate agrees and Clint gets introduced to Eleanor Bishop. I am guessing she ultimately says no but Kate sticks around to help because they figure out something more is happening. It would be funny to have the LARPing moment from the trailers be Clint testing her abilities.

    Kate is the one who can get them invited to the Christmas party where the suit is being sold at auction. I think this is where we get more reveals about further villains as people bid on the suit. This leads to them trying to break up the auction and steal the suit. They fight throughout the party before escaping out the window on ziplines (where Clint falls into the tree) and we get the giant shoot out on the ice rink at the Rockefeller Center.

    This is where a lot of the story seems to end in the trailer. To back peddle we might see a couple things. We could have the reveal that Yelena is the one who gave Kate the suit to begin with to draw Clint Barton out of hiding. It will be probably twisted (or lied about) saying that during his time as Ronin Clint killed Echo's father and that is why she is after him.

    Back to the ice rink. I believe it is here revealed that Eleanor Bishop is actually the one behind the auction and Christmas party. I have been predicting she might be revealed to be Madame Masque, a criminal mastermind that made a ton of money and gained a lot of power during the Blip. She will order them not to be killed but taken alive.

    I think here is where we get our confrontation with Yelena who finds out she has been lied to about Natasha's death and they will work together to stop what is going on. Or it is possible Yelena helps them escape but then says she has her own stuff to deal with and leave to track down Val. Would it not be so nice to reveal in this moment that Val and Madame Masque have been business partners and show that Kate's mother has actually been working for Wilson Fisk the entire time. Maybe Fisk killed her husband and has been threatening Kate?

    So how does the show end? It is a very short show in having only six episodes but I believe it will end with Kate and Clint teaming up to take down Kate's mother. I believe Jack Duquesne will be shown in flashbacks with Clint and maybe be someone Clint talks to for information but ultimately will be working for Madame Masque and we will get a showdown between Clint and the Swordsman. Meanwhile Kate will be facing off with Echo. Echo will be trying to get to Clint and he will have to team up with Kate to beat her. 

    I am still confused as to how the Clown will fit in as we have seen nothing of him. Maybe he will be someone Kate knows, a family friend who is revealed to be a part of the criminal family organizations running things in the show. I have been very impressed and happy with the marketing of this show because they have hidden so much story. I love when I get to be surprised by these shows and movies.

    All things said and done I believe we will get a fun Christmas buddy cop show that gives the character of Hawkeye the shine it deserves and sets Clint up to try once again retiring with his family and Kate as his replacement taking over the mantle of Hawkeye.

Theories

Yelena showing up sets up Thunderbolts Specifically

    I think Yelena's role in this show will be used to further establish the Thunderbolts. I would be ecstatic if we get a post credit scene of her going back to Val and see her talking with Zemo/Ross planning their next move.

Cassie Lang appearance setting up Young Avengers

    Another post credit scene I think would be a beautiful set up is Kate running into another Young Avenger. My personal choice would be getting a cameo from Emma Fuhrmann's Cassie Lang. She is still an under the radar enough actress that they could have snuck her in for a scene before she goes off to film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania next year.

Madame Masque reveal

    I already talked about this in the potential plot breakdown but I believe Kate's mom is Madame Masque. BUT I did say there was more than one candidate, I would not be shocked at all for the "big reveal" of this show being Val is Madame Masque but working for the US Government and still running the Thunderbolts. This would be a good twist on her character who has been Madame Hydra in the comics.

Thank you so much for reading! This feels like a smaller breakdown than my previous ones because it is the one I am the least confident in. Like I said before they have done a great job hiding and misdirecting story in the trailers. Once again I will be doing a weekly episode recap and theory blog so be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes! Hit me up with your theories for the show!