The rumours for Avengers 4 just keep on rolling in.
As the upcoming crossover extravaganza event will be the culmination of everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building up to for the past decade, naturally the studio is keeping a lid on the content of the film as best they can, but that doesn’t mean fans won’t continue eking out a few details here and there.
Thanks to a new report from MCU Exchange, we’re hearing that Clint Barton will ditch his traditional Hawkeye superhero identity in Avengers 4 and instead become the masked, samurai sword-sporting Ronin. The site teases that a tragic event that occurs in Avengers: Infinity War leaves Barton in a “VERY dark place,” causing him to adopt this different, much grimmer persona.
Three guesses for what the tragedy could be. Yep, we think Clint should prepare to say goodbye to Mrs. Barton and the kids.
As fans will know, Barton’s switch to Ronin is comic book accurate. He actually spent a fairly long stretch under that identity, serving as Ronin on the New Avengers and during the Skrull invasion. As such, we should expect Barton’s new alter ego to stick around well into the MCU’s Phase Four. This also leaves the door open for the character’s other comic book identities to appear at some point – Goliath, Golden Archer and even (for a brief period) Captain America.
Of course, this report hasn’t been confirmed by Marvel just yet, but MCU Exchange have been reliable in the past. Not to mention that an unrelated earlier report also claimed that Hawkeye would switch to Ronin. Plus, we know that Jeremy Renner will be sporting a very un-Hawkeye-like mohawk in Avengers 4. In short: everything is adding up to the character undergoing a drastic change.
Tell us, are you interested in seeing Hawkeye go down a darker path and ditch his arrows for samurai swords? Let us know in the comments section below!