Not much is yet known about what will go down in Avengers: Infinity War; despite the recent promotional push, we're still not really sure about where it will leave our characters, or whether some of them will encounter the grim reaper come movie's end. A massive movie like this, with so many various superheroes to count and the ultimate destroyer and villain in Thanos, is bound to feature a few casualties before going into the still untitled Avengers 4. One thing we do know, however, is that one of the characters who will make it out of Infinity War alive is Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.

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Portrayed by two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye first appeared in a cameo capacity in the first Thor movie, then went on to star alongside Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest heroes in The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. With each movie, we learned more about Clint, from his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and his evolution as an Avenger, to the shocking revelation that he had a wife Laura, three children and a very lovely farmhouse that he kept a secret from everyone except his closest friend, the Black Widow.

Jeremy-Renner-haircut-Avengers-Hawkeye

As one of the MCU's original Avengers, there's little doubt that Clint will have an important role to play in the next two Avengers film. The only question is, in what capacity?

Well, we might have been given a clue, albeit an admittedly odd one. Last Thursday, Renner appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden on CBS, sporting a very new and very different haircut. “It's definitely for the movie we're shooting right now,” the actor said rather coyly, fighting a grin on his face, when Corden asked him (quite a few times) if the haircut was for the new Avengers movie. The cut, with Renner's sides completely shaven, all the way to the back of his head, is something the late-night talk show host called an “exclusive bombshell.” Corden went on to ask is this was a “huge spoiler alert” for the movie, and from Renner's expert way of responding without giving actual answers, it seemed fairly apparent that yes, it might be a change that bears relevance. Renner's gotten pretty used to fielding questions that Marvel doesn't want him answering, of course, but that didn't stop fans from posting their theories across social media. These ideas appear to have led to Renner posting a second photo on Instagram a few days later, an image that deliberately showcased the bottom half of the back of his new haircut while he sat in his sweet Avengers: Infinity War chair.

As far fetched as it may seem at first (a haircut is a spoiler??), James Corden might be right. This could very well be a massive clue to the future of Clint Barton. Now that the cameras have begun rolling on Avengers 4, it seems noteworthy to have Hawkeye sport a new haircut, a deliberate change that makes one wonder why, and especially why now?

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Connecting the Dots, from Hawkeye to Ultimate Hawkeye

In assessing the new do, one has to consider the particular style of the haircut, and what it might signify. This would certainly make it easier for Clint to sport a new version of his costume, one that could cover the entire lower half of his head. In fact, the character -- or a version of the character -- has sported such a look in the recent past. The Hawkeye from the Ultimate Universe, an alternate reality which is in many ways darker and more depressing than the regular Marvel U (well, the pre-HydraCap Marvel U, at least) actually wears such a mask.... and sports a similar hairstyle.

Hawkeye Ultimates 3 Spider fight

Of course, before we accept that Renner's Clint goes all Ultimate Hawkeye, we have to ask what could happen to spark this change in the character between Avengers 3 and 4? Though he shared a name and his marksmanship talents with the original, Ultimate Hawkeye was very different in some crucial aspects. The Clint in the main Marvel Universe has no children, but the Clint in the Ultimate Universe does: three children, and his wife Laura, who were kept a secret from the world thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D. Sound familiar? Sadly, his family was tragically murdered in their home, an event that sent Clint in a gun-toting downward spiral of rage, something that made him all the more dangerous.

RELATED: Thanos' Black Order Confirmed for Avengers: Infinity War

Which brings us back to Renner's Hawkeye. Could his new haircut really be signaling that Clint's family is destined to be murdered, his peaceful farmhouse destroyed by Thanos and his minions, the Black Order? If Infinity War ends with Hawkeye's family dead, it's not a stretch to imagine that he'll return in Avengers 4 with a new costume and much deadlier approach to battling supervillains. While the bow is Hawkeye's preferred weapon of choice, but he isn't shy about using guns when it's necessary. As we saw in his very first appearance in Thor, Hawkeye reached for a rifle first, and only switched to a bow when he saw it was available. The opening scene of the first Avengers movie also showed us that Clint was armed with a gun, so it wouldn't be out of character to see him sport a new costume and favor pistols for at least a portion of Avengers 4.

That being said, all of this would hinge on a tragic loss for Hawkeye, something we're not wishing on the snarky Avenger. But then, his family was introduced in Age of Ultron for a reason, to deepen his character. Hopefully, Hawkeye won't suffer such a dramatic and catastrophic loss, but with Thanos coming to Earth, all bets are off, and the looming shadow of death darkens over the entire Avengers team. Besides, concept art for a similar mask was drawn around the time of Civil War, but ultimately wasn't used in that movie. Perhaps it was just being saved for the next entry in the MCU...

Then again, we might just be reading too much into all of this. As Renner joked in the interview, “I think it might just be a haircut.”


Debuting in theaters on May 4, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War is a production of Marvel Studios directed by Joe and Anthony Russo starring Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie.