The classic MCU Avengers team is almost gone. Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff are dead and Steve Rogers is living a well-earned happy ending in the past. Thor is still technically active, though seems to be focusing on raising Gorr’s daughter Love and Hulk has dropped the smashing to focus on science. That leaves Hawkeye, though after Jeremy Renner’s near-fatal snowplow accident many assumed his time as an action star had been abruptly curtailed.
However, with the help of titanium rods, hours of painful physio, and time spent in the gym Renner is back in business, and he’s just waiting for the call from Marvel to return for one last adventure. Speaking in a panel at the Phoenix Fan Fusion event he said he’d play Clint Barton again “in a heartbeat”:
So what might Hawkeye’s MCU future look like? Fans are busy discussing their ideal future storylines for him, with some saying his finale should be a heroic sacrifice to save the team and others preferring he takes up a mentorship position for next-gen hero team the Young Avengers.
After the trauma he went through in Infinity War and Endgame, we don’t want to see his happy family life ripped away from him, so we’d rather he didn’t die. Our favorite fan suggestion is for a second season of Hawkeye to work Renner’s real-life injury into the storyline and focus on him teaching strategy and teamwork to new heroes.
Another great idea is to take inspiration from the comics’ West Coast Avengers team, which was founded and overseen by Hawkeye. The story would need to be tweaked a little to put Clint in an overseer role rather than directly participating in the action, but with new heroes blossoming all over the MCU we’d love to see his hard-won experience used to mold them into a fighting force to be reckoned with.
There’s also an intriguing suggestion to zero in on a story about Clint dealing with physical limitations after spending so many years as a normal guy fighting supervillains. This kind of story has been explored in Logan and The Dark Knight Rises, but not so much in the MCU. We know Renner has the acting chops to pull this performance off, and it’d be a fitting farewell to the hero.
We doubt Disney and Marvel Studios are going to leave Hawkeye on the shelf forever. Let’s just hope his return comes in a story that recognizes the unique talents he can bring to the table, even if his days of backflipping through the air and firing off trick arrows are in the past.