A movie of Avengers: Infinity War‘s size and unprecedented scope deserves an epic, all-encompassing marketing blitz. And that’s exactly what Marvel Studios has served up thus far.
From electrifying TV spots to super-sized banners, candid behind-the-scenes pics to the MCU’s first canonical novel (spoilers: it’s called Thanos: Titan Consumed and chronicles the early years of the Mad Titan long before he became fixated on those precious Infinity Stones), the Internet has been consumed with Marvel content for the past few months.
Yes, suffice it to say, the studio’s promotional campaign has been nothing short of immense, but throughout it all, a certain archer has been suspiciously absent. Of course, we’re talking about Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, who’s been hidden away from any and all marketing material.
But don’t worry, the studio hasn’t forgotten about him, as producer Kevin Feige recently revealed that there are actually some big things on the way for Mr. Clint Barton. Talking to i09 today, here’s what he shared:
“I think it’s one of the best things that ever happened to Hawkeye. We [at Marvel] love Hawkeye. There are big, big story things coming up for Hawkeye and Jeremy Renner is as strong an actor as anyone in the MCU and awesome as this character.
But ‘The guy with the bow and arrow jokes’, right? There are a lot of ‘Guy with bow and arrow jokes.’ He even makes ‘Guy with a bow and arrow’ jokes in some of the movies. So I love that people go from ‘Oh, Hawkeye is just lucky to be there’ to ‘Oh where is he? He’s not there? Whats going to happen? We need Hawkeye. We want more Hawkeye.’ I love it. It’s the best.”
Following up on Feige’s comments, co-director Joe Russo also chimed in, teasing that Hawkeye has a very specific story.
“As we were working on both films, we were thinking about story real estate. We had the luxury of cracking both scripts at the same time and we wanted to give each character, especially the original Avengers, their moments.
It led us to certain choices, especially considering the events of Civil War where [Hawkeye’s] included in this group of insurgents and has to deal with the ramifications of siding against the U.S. government. So that led us to a very specific story with him that, as I’ve said before is a long play, not a short play. Audiences just need to be patient.”
From what we can gather based on what we know so far, Barton will go on his own mission in the movie – it could even be a quest to find the coveted Soul Stone. We also know, thanks to some illuminating set photos, that he’ll at least have a different look in Infinity War, as Renner was spotted rocking a mohawk. In fact, rumours point to him adopting his secondary vigilante alias of Ronin in either this film or Avengers 4.
Chalk that up as speculation for now, though, as we’re still completely in the dark as to how Clint Barton factors into things. Renner recently told us that the movie will do “wondrous things” with the character, though, so we’re certainly intrigued to see just what he’s up to. And we’ll get the chance to do that when Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters on April 27, which is now just five days away!