Clint Barton left his Hawkeye identity behind to become Ronin in Avengers: Endgame, when the former hero went to the dark side after his family were blipped by Thanos. Fans had been anticipating this change, based on his switch in the comics, for a while beforehand, but it turns out that there was actually a bit of foreshadowing for Clint’s transformation hidden in the MCU and we never noticed it.
Think back to the beginning of Spider-Man: Homecoming. After the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes and his team are salvaging some of the detritus from the alien invasion until they’re stopped by the Department of Damage Control. During this sequence, Adrian shows his co-worker a picture that his daughter drew of the Avengers fighting the Chitauri.
See for yourself in the gallery below:
Just under Michael Keaton’s thumb is an illustration of Hawkeye and you can just about see that he’s armed with a sword instead of a bow and arrow. Which can only be taken as a hint that Ronin was coming to the MCU. For the audience, at least. The in-world explanation must be that little Liz just wanted to draw a sword because she thought it would look cooler. Unless she’s got some sort of psychic powers we don’t know about.
As for Hawkeye, he’ll be back to using his quiver from now on seeing as his family has been returned to him. We’ll next see Jeremy Renner as the character in his own Hawkeye Disney Plus TV series, in which he’s set to train up his protege Kate Bishop. It was thought that Hailee Steinfeld would play her, but the actress has just cast some doubt on that.
Tell us, though, did you spot this Spider-Man: Homecoming easter egg before now? And are you excited for more Hawkeye in the MCU? Join the discussion in the comments section below.