Hawkeye Full Show Review and Future MCU Theories
Welcome back to HLS Entertainment! Today we are going to be discussing the finale of Hawkeye and all the implications this show has on the future of the MCU. I feel like I need to plug the full show preview here because so much of this show was called correctly and I invite you to go back and read our preview!
Out of the gate, I am not going to do a full deep dive episode of this singular episode but more so be talking about the series as a whole. Full on spoilers for here on out! Final warning. Okay so I feel like I am firmly in the camp that has been staying quiet(ish) on social media, Hawkeye stunk. Not saying it is an outright bad show, it just is not, but this show severely lacked in many ways in comparison to the Marvel Studios standard. Spoiler for the new updated MCU ranking coming out soon but this show ranked only ahead of 2008's The Incredible Hulk for me MCU wise.
The good of this show obviously starts with the introduction of the perfectly cast Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, she was amazing. Hailee brought life to every scene, and I will say she held her own terrifically with many established big(ger) time actors. The only time she did not was when, the other huge ray of goodness to the show, Florence Pugh's Yelena showed up to her apartment and just acted circles around her. But a lot of that was done on purpose to showcase Yelena as a much more established villain/hero/anti-hero in the MCU. Yelena is the new best character in the MCU. I loved this show shining more of a light onto Clint's character but really aside from just more face time with him and his kids this show did not do much at all to expand his character. Much more was done with him in less time in the Avengers films.
The bad of this show starts with some very mediocre sometimes straight up bad CGI/visual effects used in the show. The trick arrows while very fun, looked terrible nearly every time they were used. A lot of this can be blamed on my unconfirmed theory that the MCU cut back BIG TIME on the visual effects for all of its projects this year. If it does not bother you more power to you, I just beg you to not look at any car being driven casually in scenes, they filled scenes with crappy CGI cars instead of actually having them on set. Saved money, looked poorly.
The ugly of this show is the writing, completely all over the place like a bad(normal) blog on this site. The watch served zero purpose aside from possibly retconning Agents of Shield. Fisk did not have to be in this show at all. He served no purpose aside from setting up Echo's upcoming show. Alaqua Cox was incredible and cannot wait for her show, but they ruined a cool look for her for a random out of place "suit up" wardrobe change that looked straight out of the early 2000's. Here is a quick easy rewrite, commit to Eleanor being a mob boss herself which establishes a much better motive for Kate, have her be the big bad of the show and hint at Fisk is who she answers to. Half committing to her being a crime lord was a waste, and I am not even saying she has to be Madame Masque even though that would have been incredible. This show feels like they thought they had 10 episodes to write and then went oh crap we only have 6 we better cram all this in. I love the comic reference, but the show did not give us a reason at all as to why Fisk is dressed all of a sudden in his Hawaiian shirt look from Family Business. They half gave us "oh it's a themed holiday party at the Fisk office" but that and the chain just felt off-putting after falling in love with the brilliant characterization in the Netflix Daredevil show. Which by the way, Wilson Fisk himself Vincent D'Onofrio said he treated this as a continuation of the character directly.
Overall, it was a fine show, but severely below the modern MCU standard. This show felt significantly worse than its predecessors on Disney+ this year from top to bottom. And that includes Falcon and the Winter Soldier which had an entire subplot cut from it in post. This show is the epitome of the MCU using projects to set up other projects complaint. It did not do a good job at focusing on THIS show being good and rather chose to lean on previous projects and setting up future ones.
Theories and the Future of the MCU
What does Hawkeye season 2 look like?
It has not been confirmed at all, but this show very well could get a second season focusing solely on Kate, possibly moving Clint into a background role similar to how Velma was used in this season. I see season two following the wonderful Kate Bishop Hawkeye comics and moving her out to the west coast to become a private investigator. Please go buy and read the Kelly Thompson run it is really fun.
Where does Wilson Fisk pop up next?
Wilson Fisk and Yelena were obviously the two big POPS for this show getting fans excited. Wilson Fisk ends this show assumingly getting shot point blank by Maya, but this has a comic foundation, trust me he is not dead. Nitpick here, comic fans can love that end set up because we know what that means, but in a general viewership it left audiences and fans of the Daredevil show furious that thinking he was introduced just to be killed off. I imagine the Echo show will set up Fisk v Maya as she travels towards the light and becoming the anti-hero she hated for so long. We do know now after Spider-Man No Way Home that Charlie Cox is back as Matthew Murdock aka Daredevil so it is a safe assumption that he will join/team up with Maya in her show.
Ground Level vs Multiversal
Okay this could be a blog entirely to itself, but this show proved my point in this, so I am putting this here. The MCU is moving down two very clear paths right now, ground level and multiverse. Up until this point the entirety of the MCU has been primarily a single level, the Avenger level. I am purposefully avoiding the phrase "street level" because that is a common comic phrase, but I wanted to expand that sphere a bit. Ground level in this definition WOULD include most Earth/Human based stuff, so Moon Knight counts just like an Echo, or the Secret Invasion show would even though it will be dealing with Skrulls. Multiversal, probably not quite the right word, is the big looming arc that will include upcoming movies and shows like Doctor Strange 2, Loki season 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, and The Marvels. They could be "splitting" the MCU where if you are invested in the Earth based smaller scale stuff there will be a show or movie for you and if you just want the big deep cut wild stuff you will have your pick as well.
This is in no means saying that only certain projects will matter or be important and others will be lesser, this is still the MCU it all matters and are important. I think the two paths will be intertwined but will have their own primary cast of characters, because while we are being introduced to so many characters right now and still have so many that were apart of Endgame, we will still be building to seeing new groups and characters interacting for the first time. A small degree of separation to build to their eventual meetings.
A quick way to paint this out, I see the ground level shows and movies setting up Kingpin as their "big bad" that they eventually face off with. It is not a theory I came up with or particularly agree with fully but there have been people speculating that Kingpin will be revealed to be the one behind the Thunderbolts. Pulling the strings from the shadows, Wilson Fisk might be trying to form the team to fill the power vacuum left right now by not having a functioning active Avengers team. I think that maybe that could be the final showdown, Sam Wilson Assembling the New Avengers (our ground level heroes) to face off against the Thunderbolts and take down Fisk in Captain America 4.
To continue, the multiversal side of things seems to have very bright shining flashing billboards of all roads leading to Secret Wars and that would involve everyone. Is that just the endgame Plot A for this phase with the MCU with ground level being the sub plot? Probably, but I think it is safe to guess that a big chunk of this multiversal saga will be introducing the X-Men and Fantastic Four to the MCU. Specifically, Mutants because there is very easily enough Mutant characters and stories to double the size of the MCU tomorrow if Kevin Fiege wanted to. I see the multiversal side of things to collide the MCU timeline/reality with one with established Mutants and us seeing how it effects the MCU as we know it. I am saying I think at some point the MCU timeline will merge with another and the X-Men side of the MCU will essentially become an Easter Egg hunt of "ooo that means this, oh wow they were there, and we did not know" etcetera etcetera.
Thank you so much for reading! What did you think of the Hawkeye show? Am I wrong and it is incredible, or do you agree with my lackluster enthusiasm for it? Please be sure to share this across all of social media I do love the clicks, and be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes!
