Hawkeye's journey from a spinoff film to a TV series was all about deeply exploring the Avenging Archer.
Avengers: Endgame and Hawkeye executive producer Trinh Tran spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the massive team-up film set up a story about Clint Barton was too big to tackle in a solo film. Back in 2019, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige talked about the choice to make Hawkeye a TV show, but Tran went into further detail about why it was necessary.
"We decided to move Hawkeye from the feature side over to the Disney+ side for [creative flexibility]," Tran said. "The big question was, 'How are we going to fit all of this into a two-hour timeframe?' We have an Avenger whose backstory we haven’t quite had time to explore yet. We also have to introduce a new character [Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop], as well as allow enough time for them to bond and create that special dynamic that everybody finds so appealing in the comics. So, in moving it over, it allowed us six hours, three times as much time, which really gave us the creative flexibility we needed to tell the story."
As Tran notes, Hawkeye will pick up after Clint's vigilante killing spree and Natasha's death in Endgame. Already a lot to deal with, the show will also see Clint visit New York with his kids and get swept up in a new adventure alongside fellow archer Kate Bishop. The two will face a variety of comic book enemies, and as the post-credits scene in Black Widow teased, a Yelena Belova out for revenge.
So far, the series has been praised for both its handling of Clint and Kate along with the fun that the Christmas setting brings. In CBR's Hawkeye review, Meagan Damore noted the dynamic between the two archers, which looks to mirror their partnership from the comics. "Where Clint is grumpy and tired, Kate shines with effervescent enthusiasm; while he wants nothing more than to get back home to his family, she couldn't feel more distant from hers even when she's standing in the same room," Damore wrote.
Hawkeye arrives Nov. 24 with a two-hour premiere on Disney+.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter