Series / Hawkeye (2021)

Spoilers for all Marvel Cinematic Universe works preceding this one will be left unmarked.

This holiday season, the best gifts come with a bow. ^note  From left to right: Kate Bishop, Clint Barton, and Lucky the Pizza Dog.

Eleanor Bishop: So Kate is helping you with an Avengers-level threat?
Kate Bishop: He's my partner.
Clint Barton: That's kind of a stretch...

Hawkeye (stylized as hawkeye) is a superhero action buddy crime miniseries created for Disney+ by Jonathan Igla (Mad Men, Sorry For Your Loss, Bridgerton), based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is the 31st overall entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the eighth installment in Phase Four, and the fifth MCU series produced by Marvel Studios. Rhys Thomas (Brian Pern) and Bert & Bertie (Troop Zero) are the directors of the series. The series takes inspiration from Matt Fraction (who is also credited as a Producer/Creative Consultant on the show) & David Aja's beloved 2012 — 2015 run of Hawkeye, borrowing its logo and incorporating many of its characters and themes, while its promotional material much has very much been styled after Aja's art.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) just wants to spend the holidays with his family after the grueling events of Avengers: Endgame. However, after the enemies Clint made during his five-year stint as the vigilante Ronin resurface in New York, Clint must team up with the young archer Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) to deal with them, all while ensuring that he makes it home in time for Christmas.

The All-Star Cast also includes Vera Farmiga as Eleanor Bishop, Fra Fee as Kazimierz "Kazi" Kazimierczak, Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez, Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne, Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez / Echo, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Linda Cardellini as Clint's wife Laura, Brian d'Arcy James as Derek Bishop, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin and Jolt the Golden Retriever as Lucky the Pizza Dog.

The first two episodes of the series premiered on November 24th, 2021, with the remaining four episodes premiering every Wednesday through December 22nd — fittingly just three days before Christmas.

A spin-off, Echo, is set to premiere in January 2024. Also inspired the real-life production of Rogers: The Musical, an in-universe stage show that first appears in this series.

Previews: Official Trailer

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Hawkeye provides examples of:

Tropes A to G

• Adaptational Heroism: Played with in the case of Jack Duquesne (a character who, in the comics, is typically a villain but has also been a hero on some occasions), who initially seems villainous but is ultimately revealed to be a Red Herring, and even fights alongside the heroes in the finale.
• Adaptational Name Change: Jacques Duquesne is called Jack in the series.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Along with adapting from Fraction and Aja's run of the Hawkeye comics, the series also borrows from Echo's introductory storyline from the Daredevil comics. What it includes from the latter is the plot of Echo going after a hero to avenge her father's death and her ultimately turning on her boss, the Kingpin, when she finds out he's responsible.
• Adapted Out:
  • In the comics, Kate has a sister named Susan. In the show, she is an only child.
  • The head Bro's wife from the comics isn't included, presumably because Hawkeye is happily married in the MCU and the Tracksuit Mafia are led by the Kingpin in the series.
• After Action Patch Up: Clint makes a point of obtaining first-aid supplies so he and Kate can patch themselves up, with him also teaching her how to do it properly. They also take time to ice down sore spots.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Of all people, Kazi gets this most of all. When Maya realizes he and Kingpin sold out her father to be killed, she faces off with him during the final battle. She emphatically says she doesn't want to fight, and offers Kazi a chance to run away with her. He tells her that being a criminal is what he is, and that there's no way out for him. Maya is forced to kill him when he attacks her with a discarded arrow, but breaks down in tears as Kazi dies in her arms.
• all lowercase letters: The series title and credits are stylized in lowercase, and in the trailer, the tagline is presented in the same manner, right down to the same lowercase font. It's taken straight from the Matt Fraction run the series is based on.
• And Starring: Vera Farmiga receives the "and" billing while Linda Cardellini receives a "special guest star" billing in episodes she appears in.
• Annoying Arrows: Played straight when Kate shoots an arrow into Wilson Fisk's chest from close range. Fisk literally brushes the embedded arrow aside and gives no indication that it hurt him at all. Daredevil previously established that he always wears suits with concealed body armor.
• Artistic License – Animal Care: Most dog owners would tell you that feeding a dog pizza is actually extremely unhealthy for them, making Kate's rather nonchalant way of giving Lucky a leftover slice from the fridge early in the show look rather uncomfortable. Then again, having a character named "Lucky the Pizza Dog" not eat any pizza would be a pretty odd creative choice.
• Artistic License – History: Invoked when Clint points out that Rogers includes Ant-Man among the Avengers at the Battle of New York despite being a much later addition to the line-up.
• Ascended Meme: "Thanos was right" has been graffitied on a urinal in the first episode.
  • It appears again in a cup in episode four. One that Clint is using no less. Though it's implied that it belongs to Kate's aunt since it's the latter's apartment.
• An Asskicking Christmas: The series' set-pieces and timeline is built around holiday iconography, even during action sequences.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Clint and Kate finally get this in the season finale, fighting off the entire Track Suit Mafia at Rockefeller Center.
• Badass in a Nice Suit:
  • In the final episode, once Kazi opens fire at the Christmas party, Clint in a tux runs through the place dodging bullets.
  • In the first episode, Kate dresses in a tuxedo in an act of rebellion against her mother who wanted her to wear a dress. It fortuitously allows her to sneak into a secret auction and makes it easier to fight the Tracksuit Mafia.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: A downplayed aversion, the small cuts and bandages Clint and Kate get to their faces stay with them for the whole show.
• Beneath Notice: Since her tux is virtually identical to the servers at the charity ball, all Kate has to do is pick up a tray of hors-d'oeuvres to become practically invisible to the wealthy guests.
• Big Bad: Wilson Fisk is the leader of the Tracksuit Mafia and Maya's adoptive uncle.
• Bitch Slap: During the attempts by Kate to delay the elevator, she delivers one to Yelena, which throws the latter into dismay.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the last episode after the Tracksuit Mafia is defeated, Eleanor is arrested for her crimes, including killing Armand III, leaving her relationship with Kate irreparably strained, but Clint is able to keep his promise to his family to be home for Christmas, inviting Kate (and her dog, Lucky the Pizza Dog) to join them, and burns the Ronin suit to ensure that its mantle is finally over, while also implying he's going to pass the Hawkeye name onto Kate. Yelena finally learns (and accepts) what really happened to Natasha and makes peace with Clint, and Maya may be able to start a fresh life away from Fisk, albeit at the cost of killing Kazi (her Only Friend) due to his involvement with her father's death and attempting to kill her.
• Blatant Lies: As things start going wrong for Clint during his Christmas holiday, he tries convincing his kids that they have nothing to worry about but can't provide anything more than vague assurances.
• Boring, but Practical: Kate sticks to using a regular bow, which is pointed out when Clint mentions his collapsible bow. She even fights the Tracksuit Mafia to get it back. In theory it would be capable of more accurate shots, as proven in the Shoot the Bullet scene, and is even strong enough for other more unorthodox uses, like in the last episode when it's used for a springboard! Kate probably sticks with a regular bow because Clint doesn't have a second collapsible bow on hand and Kate fights to get it back because it's a prized possession.
• Bowdlerise: The credits for Episode 5 is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" replaces "I wouldn't touch you with a 39-and a half-foot pole" by repeating the "bad banana with a greasy black peel" line.
• Breather Episode: The series as a whole serves as this for the more hectic entries of Phase 4. Between the apocalypse threatening events of Eternals, the Multiverse shenanigans of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Loki and What If...? and everything in between, the series is a grounded, rather lighthearted romp set around Christmas. Cemented by the fact that the final episode's Stinger doesn't set up another movie/series but rather a musical number right in time for the holidays. It's even prefaced by a message from the studio wishing the viewers a happy holidays.
• Brick Joke:
  • When being chased by the Tracksuit Mafiya in Episode 3, Kate mentions how it'd be nice if all of Clint's arrows were labeled. Come Episode 6, she's labeling all the arrows that he makes.
  • Back in Age of Ultron, Tony assumed that Clint's family were all agents. Come the final episode, and he was partially right; Laura was once Agent 19.
  • There's a short-range one when Clint gets stuck in a giant Christmas tree, and finds an owl trapped inside it. When our heroes battle the Tracksuit Mafia and end up having to use a Pym-Tech arrow to shrink an incoming truck, they're not sure what to do with it after that... until the owl grabs it and flies off.
  • While Clint and Kate are being held by the Tracksuit Mafia, one of the mobsters starts ranting about his girlfriend taking her friend to a concert he wanted to see. This causes Kate to jump in and offer unsolicited advice about how to talk to his girlfriend. In the finale, he interrupts a fistfight with Kate in order to thank her for it.
• Broken Pedestal: When Barton treats her like an annoying kid with no useful skills who ruined his Christmas and put his family in danger, Kate realizes he's a Knight in Sour Armor and won't act like the hero she always thought of him. It kind of breaks her heart.
• The Bus Came Back: Wilson Fisk returns after last being seen in Daredevil (2015), in which he was taken to jail.
• Busman's Holiday: Clint is spending a few days in the city with his kids when his old suit shows up in the news and he has to go recover it.
  Kate: When did your heart shrink two sizes?
  Clint: When a little girl in a ninja suit stole my Christmas.
• Call-Back:
  • The Rogers musical depicts a dramatized version of the Battle of New York, complete with the original six Avengers (and Ant-Man) singing about fighting the Chitauri.
  • Black Widow's death is mentioned in just about every episode, and the guilt Clint feels for not pulling the Heroic Sacrifice instead of her informs much of his heroism and pessimism throughout the show.
  • Several references are made to Clint's stint as Ronin, the guise he took during Avengers: Endgame, before it turns out one of the show's main villains is motivated by a vendetta against Ronin.
  • Clint deliberately gets himself captured in the second episode, just like Natasha did at the beginning of the first Avengers movie. His wife even specifically mentions that he's taking a page out of Nat's playbook when he tells her what he's up to.
  • In the third episode, Clint uses an arrow that seems to be equipped with tech from Ant-Man, as it enlarges Kate's arrow to deal a pretty hefty blow to Echo and the Tracksuit Mafia.
  • Yelena still has her fondness for dogs; saving Lucky's life is one of the reasons she decides to spare Kate while hunting Clint down.
  • In the fifth episode, Clint pays a visit to a plaque that recalls the Avengers' very first mission as a team.
• Catch and Return: In the second episode, the Tracksuit Mafia throw a molotov cocktail at Kate's window. Before it makes contact, Clint smashes the window himself and catches the cocktail, then throws it back down to the gangsters.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Clint Barton, being a founding member of a Super Team that has saved the world several times, is recognized by strangers all over New York City. Clint's usual response is apathy and annoyance at it.
• Celebrity Paradox: Due to the appearance of a Times Square Katniss Everdeen, since Stanley Tucci (Dr Abraham Erskine) and Toby Jones (Arnim Zola) are both in that movie.
• Central Theme:
  • Being a hero and doing the right thing comes at personal cost. Both Clint and Kate face some personal cost in the series. For Clint, it is losing some time during the holidays he wanted to spend with his family so he can clear the Ronin business and clear Kate's name from it. For Kate, it is getting her mother arrested for her mother's crimes.
  • Being a hero requires you to have the heart of one. The main reason why Kate idolizes Clint isn't that Clint has cool powers or cool trick arrows but that Clint is a regular person who does what's right no matter the personal cost. Case-in-point, in the first episode, Kate jumps into action without powers or trick arrows without a second thought.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the first episode, Kate attends a gala with her mom in a drab suit that gets her mistaken for the waiters. Later on, she sneaks after Armand III and ends up infiltrating a shady underground auction - by posing as a waiter.
  • Also from the first episode, Kate notes how Armand has monogrammed butterscotch. This comes back when Jack reveals another one of these butterscotch candies in the next episode.
• Chekhov's Skill: In episode 4, Clint teaches Kate to flick coins at a specific target. We see her practicing this in episode 5 and in the finale, she uses the trick — with a cufflink — to detonate a trick arrowhead and defeat her opponent.
• Christmas Episode: Serves as the second one for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe after Iron Man 3. Unlike that film, here the holiday is actually a plot point as Clint is determined to spend it with his family and wants to quickly take care of his business with the Tracksuit Mafia so he can get home on time.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames:
  • Averted when it comes to Clint Barton. The criminal underworld as well as the media refer to his time as a vigilante as the Ronin. Whenever he's recognized by someone as an Avenger, it's always "you're Hawkeye!"
  • In Rogers: The Musical, they use codenames like Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow alongside real names like Natasha and Tony. It's interesting to note, however, that the musical is called Rogers so his real name is more prominent than his codename in the title of the musical itself.^note However, considering that the codename Captain America had a new user at this point, the musical's creators probably used Rogers to avoid the confusion between Steve and Sam.
  • Played straight thus far for Jacques Duquesne who doesn't get the codename Swordsman.
  • Kazi is simply a member of the Tracksuit Mafia but isn't the Clown.
  • Maya Lopez isn't using the Ronin disguise in this continuity so the name is obviously not applied to her. Her more common codename Echo has also yet to he used, although the episode that introduces her is titled "Echoes".
  • Averted with Wilson Fisk, who is called "Kingpin" by Clint, and credited with his codename in the credits of the last two episodes.
• Comical Coffee Cup: Clint ends up drinking from one saying "Thanos Was Right", which apparently belonged to Kate's aunt.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The clocktower that Kate Bishop accidentally destroys is named "Stane Tower", which is in reference to Iron Man's big bad, Obadiah Stane.
  • In one scene in Black Widow, Yelena comments to Natasha that she hoped Nat would bring one of the "big ones", one of the Avengers that didn't need to take an ibuprofen after a fight. When Clint and Kate go to get supplies, Kate assumes it's "Avengers gear." Cut to Clint picking up a package of ibuprofen in a convenience store.
  • A waving fortune cat similar to the one that distracted Bucky Barnes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also appears here, which enamors Nathaniel enough to try and imitate it.
  • In the beginning of Episode 4, Eleanor mentions how Kate is helping Clint with an Avengers-level threat.
  • Episode 5 has Yelena mention that she wants to visit the recently-renovated the Statue of Liberty, which was the centerpiece for the final battle in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was released around the same week and is implied to take place at roughly the same time. For an added bonus, Matt Murdock appears in that film, while Wilson Fisk, his arch enemy, is revealed as the Greater-Scope Villain.
  • In the final episode of Daredevil, the Kingpin ends up fighting a villain with Improbable Aiming Skills and a hero missing one of the five senses who ultimately refuses to kill Kingpin. In the finale here, he fights a hero with Improbable Aiming Skills and a villain missing one of the five senses who ultimately attempts to murder him.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: Kate, suspecting that Jack is hiding something and that he's pretending to be a worse fencer than her, strikes at his unprotected face with her fencing saber. He casually parries the attack and immediately disarms her, knocking the sword out of her hand and proving that he's much more skilled than he initially tried to appear.
• Creator Cameo: Marc Shaiman, who wrote the music for Rogers: The Musical, appears in The Stinger as the orchestra conductor for said musical.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits (after a cold open in the first episode, at the end otherwise) depict events and elements from the series through graphics reminiscent of David Aja's art (especially the covers) in the 2012 title. In the case of the fifth episode, the last part, with the series name, has Kingpin's silhouette superimposed into the image.
• Credits Jukebox: Similar to Loki, each episode's end credits features different music
  • Episodes 3 and 5 in particular use Sammy Davis Jr.'s cover of "Sweet Gingerbread Man" in the former and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in the latter (albeit without the "39-and-a-half-foot pole" lyric) respectively.
• Death by Adaptation: Kate's origin story involved her dead mother and wealthy Archnemesis Dad ^note Eleanor was eventually revealed to be alive much later, albeit as an undead vampire. Here, Derek is dead when she starts her superhero career, while Eleanor is alive.
• Dented Iron: To an even greater degree than Black Widow (2021), the series heavily emphasizes the physical toll of being a superhero without powers. Clint now needs a hearing aid after years of facing explosions and intense battles as an Avenger. He and Kate suffer multiple injuries during their fights with the Tracksuit Mafia, and have to apply medical attention to themselves afterwards.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: In the A Minor Kidroduction, Eleanor make it clear she thinks Kate is definitely Daddy's little girl, and sends him up to talk to her about eavesdropping. She then has a few sweet scenes showing that she loves her daughter and they actually get along well. Cue the invasion of New York and a Time Skip and their relationship is only slightly more strained, while Kate still remembers her father fondly.
• Disappeared Dad: Kate's dad died almost immediately in the Incident.
• The Dreaded:
  • Clint has no problem dealing with the Tracksuit Mafia but is trying to solve the whole case and get home before drawing the personal attention of The Big Man AKA Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk.
  • As usual, the Avengers are this. Fisk is less than amused that Clint is involved in his business.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Kate spends the series suspicious of her mother's fiancé, picking up on a number of clues. Turns out, he's just kind of a twit who genuinely loves her mother.
• Epic Fail:
  • During Kate's dare with her friends early in the first episode, she targets an arrow at a clocktower bell, which causes the entire thing to fall apart.
  • Both times when Kate and Clint use a zipline, they fall in painful situations, with Clint falling into a Christmas tree and Kate falling through a window onto her face.
  • At the end of the second episode, Kate tracks Clint to where the Tracksuits took him to try to rescue him but ends up falling through the skylight and getting captured herself.
• Evolving Credits: After Episode 5's Wham Shot reveal of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin as The Man Behind the Man, the credits are amended so that the final shot has Kingpin's distinctive silhouette superimposed onto it. The final episode also adds in a still for Jack during the cast section of the Creative Closing Credits and Kingpin’s silhouette is not superimposed to represent him being defeated.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: Clint drives away from the Tracksuit Mafia while rummaging through his quiver to select the right (read: least dangerous) arrow that Kate can use against their pursuers.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The series takes place the week before Christmas, between the dates of December 18 and December 24. Each episode covers about a day or so.
• Fictional Counterpart: Rogers: The Musical is a pastiche of Hamilton, as a musical based on an American historical figure with a Mononymous Biopic Title. The poster frames the main character in silhouette and has a black-and-gold color scheme. The set of Rogers has a second-floor "balcony" directly overlooking the main stage, just like Hamilton.
• Foreshadowing:
  • One of the fronts for the Tracksuit Mafia is a repair shop called Fat Man Auto Repair. "Fat Man" is a common nickname for Wilson Fisk, AKA the Kingpin, who's revealed to be in charge of the whole operation.
  • In episode 4, Kate laughs at Jack’s botched life is a box of chocolates quote. This foreshadows that Jack is a genuinely charming man and not a bad guy and that Kate will eventually accept him.
  • When discussing potential destinations for Yelena to visit in Episode 5, Kate mentions the Rockefeller Tree. The final battle takes place around the tree, and Yelena and Clint's final confrontation happens right next to it.
• Forging Scene: After 3 phases of movies and several Disney+ series, Hawkeye finally gets an Iron Man moment in episode 6, with both Clint and Kate building a whole bunch of trick arrows.
• Friendly Enemy: Kate and Yelena are on opposite sides, the latter wanting to kill Clint and such, yet both times they interact it's clear they could easily get along, even as they're punching each other.
• The Grinch: Discussed and Subverted. Kate makes fun of Clint's sour disposition in Episode 2 by asking what made his heart grow three sizes too small. Clint says it's because her antics are making him miss Christmas with his family, not because he hates the holidays. Funnily enough, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" does play when Wilson Fisk appears at the end of Episode 5.

Tropes H to Z

• Handicapped Badass:
  • Like in the original comic run, Clint has taken to wearing a hearing aid due to his many years of heroics causing some serious damage to his ears. Yet he's still badass enough to fight off the Tracksuit Mafia.
  • Maya has been deaf since birth and at some point lost one of her legs. Nevertheless, she's a feared mafia boss and is capable of taking down opponents much larger than her in fights. She's more than a match for Clint and Kate, and even holds her own against Yelena.
• History Repeats:
  • Maya's father dies in her arms and so does Kazi, albeit she had to kill him herself.
  • Once again, a Black Widow and a Hawkeye are in the way to be best friends.
• Hurrying Home for the Holidays: Clint's ultimate goal is to solve the current mystery, then get back to his family to spend time with them for Christmas.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: It wouldn't be a Hawkeye series without a lot of this.
  • In the very first episode, Kate fires an arrow which bounces under a bell, wraps around the clapper, and rings it on her second try. It then causes a chain reaction that knocks the whole bell tower over.
  • Kate at one point kicks a wine bottle off the floor and into a member of the Tracksuit Mafia's head.
  • While jumping off a balcony in the middle of a fight, Clint fires an arrow across the room which both knocks Kazi off balance and cuts the tape holding Kate's hands without hurting her. He also does a no-look, behind-the-back shot (just after Echo destroyed his hearing aid, mind you).
  • In episode four, Clint turns off a radio and TV by throwing a coin. He then teaches Kate how to do the same thing in a short montage. She successfully pulls this off in the finale using a cufflink to detonate the "Too Dangerous" arrowhead to engulf Kingpin in an explosion.
  • In the series finale, Clint pulls off yet another no-look, behind-the-back shot to blow up a group of Tracksuit mooks.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Kate fights off some members of the Tracksuit Mafia with several wine bottles in the first episode.
  • The first action set piece in Episode 3 is set in an abandoned toy store. Clint hurls stuffed animals at the gang, Maya fires back with a plastic unicorn and Kate attacks with a market trolley.
• Improperly Paranoid: Kate spends much of the season thinking her mother's fiancée is a psycho murderer, due to the Fourth-Date Marriage feel of it, that he was at a shady auction, that his uncle wound up stabbed to death after threatening her mom, that he has one of his uncle's butterscotch candies... Turns out he's really a dork who's really into swords, loves her mother, is in no way connected with criminal activity, and is trying too hard to connect with his soon-to-be stepdaughter.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: When watching the musical Rogers, Clint points out that it incorrectly shows Ant-Man participating in the Battle of New York. Though factually he was there, the details of the Time-Heist is not public knowledge, so there's no possible way the musical's writers should know this.
• Irony: In Echo's introductory flashback, she and her father have conversation about dragons. After a moment, she asks her father if dragons are real, to which he replies that dragons live in a different world. Having no idea just how right he is.
• Kick Chick: While Maya Lopez does use some joint locks reminiscent of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, her primary fighting style emphasizes Capoeira with sweeping leg blows. This takes advantage of her prosthetic leg to inflict maximum damage.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Subverted with Clint. He acts aloof with Kate because she unintentionally caused a problem that he needs to fix, but he is usually nicer whenever he is alone or when it counts. Examples include being slightly annoyed by Lucky in front of Kate, and then petting and speaking with him when they're alone, threatening Grills before the LARP fight and then admitting he was glad to participate and it was nice to meet Grills, as well as being affable to customer service people he interacts with and even wishing Kate a Merry Christmas when he thinks it is their last meeting.
• LARP: Clint enters one when he learns how the Ronin suit ended up with a LARPer in Episode 2.
• Laughably Evil: The Tracksuit Mafia are dangerous, armed criminals but also often silly due to their less than perfect grasp of English, insistence on saying "bro", colorful eponymous outfits, and most of them being incredibly stupid to a point that it kind of makes Kazi and Maya Knights of Cerebus.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Kate's entire conversation with Clint over his problem (according to her, anyway) with "branding", referring to the character Hawkeye's real-world reputation as the least popular Avenger. It goes as far as mentioning that Hawkeye Halloween costumes and action figures aren't big sellers.
• Leitmotif:
  • Both Clint and Kate share one in the main theme, "Hawkeye's Theme".
  • Ronin has a Japanese influenced theme in scenes with Ronin or in scenes where Ronin is mentioned. The theme has slight similarities to "Hawkeye's Theme" to tie Clint and Ronin together.
• Lighter and Softer: Definitely compared to the other Disney+ shows and the other forays in Phase 4 so far, being a mostly lighthearted and lower stakes adventure during Christmas. Ironically, it confirms Daredevil, which, along with the other Netflix MCU shows, is notoriously Darker and Edgier and Bloodier and Gorier than the movies and Disney+ shows, as canon after years of being Schrödinger's Canon.
• Logo Joke: Keeping with the archery theme, in the trailer, a series of concentric rings envelop the Marvel Studios logo to make it look like a target.
• MacGuffin: A Rolex watch stolen from the Avengers Compound that Clint thought was destroyed when Thanos attacked is the item of interest for a lot of parties in the series. From a black market auction, it ends up in the hands of several people. The watch contains a transmitter with an unknown purpose. At the end of season's final episode, it's revealed the watch belonged to Laura when she was working for SHIELD.
• Made of Iron: Wilson Fisk is much tougher this time around, being unphased by an arrow to his chest and walking off head-on explosions with not much damage to show.
• The Mafiya: The aptly-named Tracksuit Mafia appear as villains in this show, who act impressively dumb and despicable, yet oddly likable overall.
• Mangled Catch Phrase: In-universe, the song we hear in the musical Rogers has the repeated line 'Avengers Unite!' rather than Avengers Assemble. Whenever Cap sings, it's "Avengers assemble", and the chorus sings "Avengers unite".
• Mêlée à Trois: A three-sided fight with four people. Kate and Clint vs Maya vs Yelena, with team Hawkeye switching between who they're fighting against.
• Melee Disarming: When Kate fences Jack, she becomes convinced he's holding back and letting her win. To force him to reveal his full skill, she slashes at his unprotected face between bouts. He effortlessly disarms her without even looking, showing how much he was, indeed, holding back.
• Merchandising the Monster: The fourth episode shows that Kate's aunt has a "Thanos Was Right" mug in her apartment. Yes, someone thought it was a good idea to make merchandise agreeing with the genocidal madman who destroyed half the universe, and who's alternate counterpart almost destroyed all of it to rebuild in his image. Also doubles as an Ascended Meme.
• Metaphorically True:
  • If one takes the time-travel shenanigans of Avengers: Endgame into account, Ant-Man technically was present during the Battle of New York in 2012... albeit in an alternate timeline, and participating in a situation that is very much not involved with the actual battle. Though the chances that the people involved with Rogers: The Musical knew this are pretty low.
  • Similarly, when confronted by Echo about the fate of the Ronin, Hawkeye claims that Black Widow killed him, and that he witnessed the whole thing. While it's not the actual truth (since Hawkeye was Ronin), it was Widow who found Clint in this state and convinced him to come back as Hawkeye when it came time for the Time Heist.
• Mood Lighting: Maya's first appearance has her depicted in a Red Filter of Doom, giving her an ominous appearance.
• Mood Whiplash: The Reveal of Wilson Fisk AKA the Kingpin working with Eleanor Bishop ends with the credits playing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".
• Mook Horror Show: Invoked in episode 5 - Clint finally agrees to meet Maya alone, for possibly the last time, and to ensure that she's alone, he singlehandedly takes down the rest of the Tracksuit Mafia, basically becoming Ronin once again.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Clint participating in a bizarre LARP event to get to a guy wearing his Ronin costume features epic music, gratuitous slow-mo and clunky movements from his opponents, all as he effortlessly fake-defeats all his opponents.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The series features an in-universe musical about Captain America titled Rogers: The Musical. Marvel did try to make a musical about him in the 1980s but failed to drum up the funds. It also has Ant-Man being present for the Battle of New York. This can be seen as a nod to Ant-Man being one of the founding members of the Avengers in the comics.
  • During Echo's first appearance at the end of Episode 2, she's introduced bathed in red light, much like a certain blind vigilante she's associated with. For added bonus, it's later revealed that The Kingpin, Daredevil's archenemy, is her boss.
  • During the car chase escaping the Tracksuits, Echo is in a red Dodge Challenger with black racing stripes, while Clint and Kate rummage and bicker about which arrows to use, all elements which are also taken from Fraction's run of the comics.
  • The main poster, as depicted here, is a loose recreation of David Aja's cover art for the Matt Fraction run of Hawkeye.
  • Kate suggests that Clint redesign his costume to make it more memorable, with the design she suggests being a version of the costume he wore in earlier comics, featuring brighter colors and a mask.
  • One of the LARPers is shown wearing the classic Hawkeye costume from the comics.
  • Episode 2 sees Kate and Clint enter Kate's aunt's apartment, whose name on the buzzer shows is Moira Brandon. In the comics, Moira Brandon was an actress who sold her estate to Hawkeye, which he turned into the West Coast Avengers Compound.
  • Echo's father leaves a bloody handprint on her face as he dies, just as he does when he dies in the comics. The handprint's left on the side of her face like the way she wears it as face paint in the comics, instead of being straight at the middle like her father's comic death scene.
  • In the fourth episode, Wendy Conrad mentions that her bag has "Bombshell" embroidered on it. In the comics, she's the villain known as Bombshell.
  • When Yelena Belova first appears in the series, she's shown wearing a black mask with glowing green eye goggles. This is much like how she appears in the comics.
  • When Kingpin shows up in the final episode, he uses a cane topped with a diamond, referencing how he wielded a similar cane (equipped with a concealed laser blaster) in the comics as a weapon. His red-and-white shirt also references his costume in the Spider-Man comic "Family Business".
  • Echo shooting the Kingpin is framed very similarly to the way she did it in the comics. There, the Kingpin survived, although it's left ambiguous whether it will be the case here.
  • The "Trust a Bro" moving truck logo is a direct reference to the Tracksuit Mafia being referred to as the "Bros" in the comics.
  • Kate's refrain of "not my dog" in the show was Clint's oft-repeated phrase from the comic after it was him instead of Kate who saved the animal from traffic.
  • Grills, despite being a different character, shares a nickname with Clint's closest civilian friend in the the Fraction/Aja comic book series.
  • Clint's last line of the show when discussing Kate's potential codename, "How about.." before cutting to the "Hawkeye" title screen is a reference to the fact that in the comics, they both use the Hawkeye codename.
  • Clint's wife Laura turns out to be the former SHIELD agent Agent 19. In the comics, Agent 19 was Mockingbird's code number, and she too was married to Clint.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers are edited in a way where you would assume that the show is premised on Kate taking up the Ronin identity and picking up Clint's former vigilante ways that he's left behind, with her actions causing trouble that he has to clean up. While Kate does cause trouble (accidentally), she's not a vigilante and only wears the Ronin suit as a hasty and convenient disguise when caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus, she only wears it for one night before encountering Clint, who takes it back.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kate's attempt at rescuing Clint is this, she ends up falling through the skylight and gets captured herself. What makes this worse is that Clint got captured on purpose and was pumping the Tracksuits for information, but his attempt is ruined by Kate's botched rescue attempt.
• Not His Sled: Kate strongly suspects Jack is a criminal, and most comic-book fans would expect her to be correct since he is in fact a supervillain in the comics. Turns out he's completely innocent and genuinely sympathetic to her.
• Old Money:
  • Kate's family has been wealthy for several generations. Her father was implied to have been born into wealth (in contrast to her self-made mother), and when she and Clint sneak into her family penthouse, she mentions that the building it sits on top of was constructed by her great-great-grandfather.
  • The Duquesne family are blue bloods of the highest order. Jack himself is quite the Upper-Class Twit.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Episode 3 establishes Clint as the older hero and the much younger Echo as The Heavy. It's still valid after Yelena Belova appears as the greater threat.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Clint Barton isn't proud of his actions as Ronin in the slightest, as he ended up with a long list of enemies during his time under the mantle. Seeing what appears to be a pretender going after criminals on their own is what encourages Clint to put his Christmas vacation with his family on hold to try to end the Ronin mantle for good.
• Present-Day Past:
  • In the prologue, Kate Bishop has an Ikea blue shark toy in 2012, two years before its release.
  • In a Freeze-Frame Bonus also in the prologue, one of the awards in Kate's bedroom was from 2016 despite being set in 2012.
• Previously on…: Before the title theme of every episode is a recap montage of things that occurred in previous episodes, with scenes arranged and sometimes placed out of chronological order to give particular characters or events focus.
• Product Placement: In the second episode, Clint and Kate are walking through Times Square and the Disney store can be clearly seen in the background. Disney owns Marvel Studios, and Hawkeye streams on Disney+.
• Protagonist Title: The show's title, as seen in posters and trailers, is "Hawkeye", the codename for its central character, Clint.
• Real Time: It's subtle, but the six episodes take place over about six days. In the episode, Clint says he's going to make it home for Christmas, and (with four episodes left) his wife tells him he has five days left to make good on that.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: By the end of the series, Barton has taken a level in kindness toward Kate, and he's gone back to being the hero she always saw him as.
• Red Skies Crossover: This series is shown to be taking place roughly around the same time as the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, as both installments are taking place around the Christmas holidays in 2024. That said, outside of Yelena offhandedly mentioning the "new and improved Statue of Liberty" and the involvement of characters from Daredevil, there's little intersection between these two series due to their completely different tones.
• Retractable Weapon: This series shows that the blade of Ronin's katana can retract into the grip, despite the solid blade being much longer than the grip. Clint also mention his retractable bow when Kate complains about how awkward it is to carry a wooden bow indoors.
• The Reveal:
  • Throughout the series, Clint has been talking about a "Big Man" involved in what happened during his time as The Ronin, with hints he tied into a few other secrets when Clint was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Kate's investigation into Armand's death pointed to this Big Man as well. At the end of Episode 5, Clint confirms that the "Big Man" is Wilson Fisk.
  • Episode 6 reveals the owner of the Rolex that the Tracksuit Mafia was after. It's Laura Barton, who's also revealed to have been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent known as "Agent 19".
• Rummage Fail: Thanks to Clint being the only one who can identify his own arrows, Kate is forced to shoot them off one by one with no idea what they might do. Luckily they're all the dangerous type. Except maybe the USB one.
• Samurai Shinobi: Everyone continuously refers to the Ronin suit as a "ninja outfit".
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The guy at the LARP event who says "Clang!" aloud to provide sound effects for Clint's foam-sword duel.
• Secret Identity: The third episode reveals that outside of the Avengers themselves, pretty much nobody knows who the identity of Ronin really was when he was active. This is invoked by Clint, as he knows how dangerous it would be if people found out who he used to be.
• Self-Deprecation: When Kate draws a crude sketch of a new outfit for Hawkeye in a diner, Clint says he would never wear such a blatantly obvious costume because his wife would divorce him for wearing it — except that crude drawing is his classic costume from the original comics.
• Sequel Hook: The season finale ends with Echo confronting Fisk in an alley over the death of her father, with the camera panning away as Echo's gun goes off. This will likely get resolved in Echo's own upcoming series.
• Series Continuity Error: Happens in-universe with Rogers: The Musical, where Ant-Man is shown to be part of the cast despite Scott Lang not being present or even an active hero during the Battle of New York (aside from when he visited that time during Endgame). Clint himself lampshades this as he's watching the show with his kids.
• Shoot the Bullet:
  • In the third episode, Clint's plan to deal with the pursuing Tracksuit Mafia involves getting Kate to long-bomb an arrow at them so he can nail it with a Pym-Tech arrow. The fact that he pulls it off somehow pales in comparison to what comes next.
  • Done again in the finale where Clint attacks three Tracksuit Mafia at once by firing one arrow and then a second that splits the first, so the second is aimed at the centre target and the other two are each hit with one half of the split arrow.
• Shout-Out:
  • The staging of Rogers: The Musical takes a few cues from real-world Broadway shows:
    • The Mononymous Biopic Title, posters featuring silhouettes on a gold background, and onstage balcony all come from Hamilton.
    • The onstage Avengers wear normal outfits designed to give the idea of their costumes, rather than full recreations of them, as in The SpongeBob Musical.
    • Being a stage musical based off of a beloved, New York-based superhero makes Rogers into a Fictional Counterpart to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The Stylistic Suck of Rogers is a possible reference to Turn Off the Dark's own mixed critical reception.
  • In Episode 5, the Tracksuits try to cheer themselves up by rattling off other famous track suit wearers, including Tony Soprano. Doubles as a Celebrity Paradox, as Vera Farmiga (Eleanor) appeared in the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark
  • While in the elevator with Yelena in Episode 6, Kate frustrates Yelena's plan to find and kill Clint by pressing all the elevator buttons, similar to a scene from Elf.
  • The finale fight is set in and around Rockefeller Plaza, including the adjacent FAO Schwartz toy store. During the fight, Kate jumps onto a light-up floor piano à la Big.
• Show Within a Show: Rogers: The Musical. Signs for the show can be seen on various buildings, and we even get to see part of the performance in the first episode. The Stinger of the final episode is the full performance of the "Save the City" music number.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: For most of her appearances, Maya Lopez is dressed in practical street clothes (pants, leather jacket, combat boots) with her hair up. When she finally realizes that Kingpin and Kazi betrayed her father and set him up to be killed by Clint, she shows up to the final fight with her hair down and straightened, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and tactical belt, with her prosthetic leg exposed — the spitting image of her comics counterpart Echo, minus the handprint on her face.
• Skilled, but Naive: Kate has a lot of training in martial arts and archery, and a little Refuge in Audacity takes her a long way, but she hasn't any experience in real world fights and not even training in how to conduct a the sort of criminal investigation she's starting in the first episode. Clint has to step in and become The Mentor to get her properly on the path to being a superhero.
• Smug Snake: For five straight episodes, Jack Duquesne comes across as smarmy, entitled, and vaguely threatening, so it's very easy for the audience to buy him as the threat. Ends up being Subverted. Jack actually is a well-meaning man who just wanted to make a relationship with Kate work before he married Eleanor. He heroically draws his sword and defends Kate in the final episode, even affectionately referring to her as "Katie" with a warm smile. Kate apologizes for her cold treatment and thinking the worst of him, which he accepts and says isn't a big deal. It helps that the actor Tony Dalton also plays the very threatening villain Lalo Salamanca on Better Call Saul.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: While Kate idolizes Clint, the two regularly trade witty blows in most of their interactions. What helps is that Kate is confident enough to stand up to her hero when he is being a jerk to her.
  Kate: "Stash" me? I'm not a bag of money.
  Clint: No. You're not. A bag of money would be useful to me.
  Kate: I know a place [to lay low]. Would a bag of money know a place?
• Sound-Effect Bleep: In the car chase scene in episode 3, Kate shoots a Trust a Bro van with a "safer" arrow. The van explodes and flips, the sound drowning out her yelling, "Holy shit!"
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Everywhere. In keeping with the Christmas theme, the series' soundtrack incorporates various Christmas-themed songs and music, including during intense action scenes and stunts, adding to the irreverent tone. Notably, a mostly unaltered version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" plays throughout the first trailer and in the end credits of the first episode. The end credits of Episode 5 plays "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" after the reveal that Eleanor Bishop is working with Kingpin.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Grills and his group of LARPers are last seen speaking to the police as they tidy up after the climatic battle with the Tracksuit Mafia. In Hawkeye the comic book, Grills is murdered by the Clown in issue #10.
• The Stinger: The mid-credits of the final episode shows the full version of the ''Rogers: The Musical" number that was featured in the first episode.
• Stylistic Suck: Rogers: The Musical is a ridiculously cheesy production, filled with cheap costumes, cardboard cutouts representing the Chitauri, and Ant-Man being part of the show despite not being present or even an active hero in the Battle of New York. The Barton family cringes all the way through its runtime, with Clint even turning off his hearing aid so that he doesn't have to listen to the actual lyrics. The rest of the audience seems to love it though, and the actors are clearly giving their all in spite of what they're given to work with, though depending on if they know that Clint was in attendance they might be giving it a little extra.
• Suckiness Is Painful: The Barton family's reaction to Rogers consists of awkward cringing for the most part, which eventually ascends to an outright Heroic BSoD for Clint after he sees the actress playing Natasha and is overcome by grief.
• Super Hero Origin: The series acts as one for both Kate Bishop (Hawkeye II) and Maya Lopez (Echo, a villain turned hero).
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Clint doesn't call in other Avengers to help because, frankly, he doesn't need them; he's an experienced spy and assassin going up against street thugs. Even with Kate's Unwanted Assistance, he's always shown as having the situation under control. The only other heroes that would get involved would be ones that poke their noses into New York crime anyway, i.e. Spider-Man, who has his own mess to deal with. Even more surprising is the absence of Daredevil, who would have more than likely gotten involved considering his nemesis, the Kingpin, is involved. The quickest explanation would be that Matt decided to leave the fight to Hawkeyes, especially since not only does Fisk now seemingly have Super-Strength, which he would not be able to deal with, one of the Hawkeyes is an Avenger.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Turns out a being a middle-aged normal human being caught next to a whole lot of loud explosions for well over a decade isn't great for the ears as time goes by.
  • Also, turns out that not having your incredibly powerful buddies to help you out since you've retired from the Avengers means that it's open season for many of the enemies you've made over the years... as well as someone pretending to be you. When Kate steals the Ronin costume (not knowing its significance), she's mistaken for Clint's more ruthless vigilante counterpart and is nearly killed for it by a group of thugs who want even with Ronin.
  • Kate's prowess in hand-to-hand fighting is treated more realistically than you'd expect for a superhero story. Her lack of size cause her to be occasionally overwhelmed by the numbers or size of her opponents. Additionally, there is a world of difference between sparring with someone on the mat, which she's been doing for many years, and going full-out against someone trying to kill you.
  • Clint doesn't label his trick arrows because he only expected he would be using them and knows what they all look and feel like. When Kate has to try and use his collection while Clint is deafened, she gets confused and fires the wrong ones if Clint doesn't hand them to her. She finally gets him a label maker for his quiver.
  • Clint expends most of his trick arrows during the shootout with the Tracksuits and goes on to explain that even though he still has a few arrowheads, they're useless without the specialized shafts they're designed to be attached to. This obviously wasn't a problem when he was with S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, but without either of those entities to provide him with new weaponry, he has to send Kate to retrieve the spent arrow shafts.
  • Clint's still an expert hand-to-hand combatant, but he's been out of practice for the last fourteen months, and it shows subtly in a few of his fights. If you don't practice regularly, your skills will get duller, no matter how good they were in the first place.
• Take That!:
  • In-Universe with Rogers: The Musical, which has a line that attacks the Sokovia Accords and/or protests against the Avengers.
  • The second episode has Kate taking a shot at Imagine Dragons when Tomas talks about how he and his girlfriend ended up not getting tickets to one of their concerts. Tomas isn't amused, as he's actually a fan of theirs.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Clint can only sigh in resignation and dull disbelief that to find the Ronin suit, he's going to have to play along with LARPers and their hilariously cheesy medieval fantasy roleplay.
• Title Sequence: As explained above in Creative Closing Credits, the first episode features one which is a montage of Kate's sports career.
• Training Montage: The opening credits serve as this for Kate, showing her training in and mastering, not without taking some lumps, multiple forms of combat.
• Translator Buddy: Kazi to Echo, as he's the only other person in the gang who knows ASL.
• Trick Arrow: In the first episode, Kate has a makeshift one, using a rope and a tennis ball to make a "bola arrow". In the third, Clint's arsenal of them is exploited, including an explosive arrow, an acid arrow and a Pym Particle Arrow. The finale has them use an inflatable balloon pillow, an electromagnetic arrow, a freeze arrow, an arrow that fires needles and one that Kate labels "too dangerous".
• Uncertain Doom: Kingpin is seemingly gunned down by Maya out of retaliation for her father's death. Since the camera pulls away before the shot is fired, it's unclear if he survived or not.
• Ungrateful Bastard: It's hinted that a disturbingly high number of civilians believe that the half-omnicide was actually a good thing, the worldwide trauma and the Avengers and a few other superheroes busting their chops be damned. In the theater, Clint sees a scribbled "Thanos was right" message on the urinal, and Kate's aunt has a mug with that phrase. The existence of the mug implies enough people agreed with Thanos's ideology that it warranted mass-produced merchandise.
• Upper-Class Twit: Jack Duquesne seems to be a Minnesota Nice Rich Bitch who is hiding his inner jerkass as some sort of sinister angle. It turns out that he's just a fairly daffy blue blood.
• Uptown Girl: Implied Trope. During the A Minor Kidroduction scene in the first episode, Kate overhears a fight between her parents, who appear to be having financial problems. Her mother, Eleanor, accuses her father, Derek, of always expecting a magic solution to their problems since he grew up with money. Later, in the same episode, Eleanor comments that, unlike Kate, she wasn't always rich. These two scenes together imply that Derek was much more well-off than Eleanor was when they married. Then it's revealed in Episode 6 that Derek was highly indebted to the Kingpin, and Eleanor was under his thumb for years to pay it off.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: During their fight in episode 5, Echo manages to disarm Clint of his sword twice. She comes close to killing him the second time, and Clint is only saved by Kate's intervention.
• Verbal Tic: The members of the Tracksuit Mafia punctuate a lot of sentences with "bro". They even drive around in a van emblazoned with "Trust a Bro Moving Company".
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • Even sixteen years after his death, Obadiah Stane is still respected enough by the public to have a tower named after him as seen in Episode 1.
  • Noticeably Averted with Kingpin, who spent much of his time in his own show playing this trope to the hilt. This time, all parties involved are fully aware he's a ruthless crime boss, and when he narrowly loses to Kate, he wisely darts out before the cops arrive.
• The Voiceless: Maya. Justified by the fact that she's deaf.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Kate has extensive experience fighting in gyms and tournaments, but none against opponents who are willing to kill her. She does very well in the chaos of the auction, but once she's caught in the open, the Tracksuit Mafia boys wipe the floor with her and she only gets away because Hawkeye rescues her. She levels up a bit over the course of the series.
• Wham Shot:
  • The final scene of Episode Five, when Kate finds out who hired Yelena to kill Clint... her own mother, who was caught on camera happily meeting with Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.
  • The Rolex that Clint gives to Laura has a S.H.I.E.L.D logo complete with the agent number 19; one of the aliases of Marvel's iconic character Mockingbird.
• Who Are You?: Clint to Kate, when he finally tracks down the person who took his Ronin costume.
• "World's Best" Character: Kate claims that some people have called her the world's greatest archer. Clint (who has also been called the world's greatest archer) flatly asks if she is one of those people. She sheepishly nods (in the trailer) or is forced to note it's the case (in the show). After seeing her in action, however, Clint actually agrees.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Clint is carrying a lot of baggage, both from his time as Ronin and as a Shell-Shocked Veteran. He refuses to think of himself as a hero, and it takes Kate and Grills both insisting over several episodes that they see him that way for him to think maybe he's not all bad.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: In episode 1, Clint quickly finds Kate after seeing her in his Ronin costume on the news, determined to get it back. After dragging her down an alley and roughing her up to get the suit back (assuming she's older and more of an actual threat), he yanks off her mask and sees her real identity. When seeing she's a young and inexperienced kid, he goes, "Oh, come on!" and quickly drops the aggression. He's clearly annoyed and exasperated to see "a kid" taking up his Ronin mantle (albeit accidentally) and comments on how dangerous it was for her to have done that.
• Zerg Rush: The Tracksuits attack Kate and Clint by the dozens at Rockefeller Center in the final episode. Unfortunately for them, Conservation of Ninjutsu is in full effect.

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♫ We can do this all DAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! ♫

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