Hawkeye on Disney Plus: release date, trailer, cast, plot and more

After months of waiting, Hawkeye on Disney Plus has finally received a trailer. The MCU TV series' release is two months away at this point, so it's high time that we saw our first footage from the Jeremy Renner-starring show.

In fact, the character's solo adventure has been a long time coming. Hawkeye is the only original Avengers member who hasn't received a standalone movie, but we'll see him in action in his own series on Disney's streaming platform soon enough.

While we wait for it to officially arrive, what do we know about Marvel's next live-action TV series? Well, it's coming out on November 24, it'll be Holiday season-themed, and Renner's Clint Barton will be teaming up with a new archer and comic fan favorite – Kate Bishop, who's officially being played by Bumblebee's Hailee Steinfeld.

You can find out more about the show's first trailer, cast, plot and other elements below. Be aware that there are mild spoilers for previous MCU productions, too, just in case you're not caught up on every movie or TV show yet.

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Hawkeye release date: November 24

Hawkeye now has a release date: November 24 on Disney Plus, which is a Wednesday, just like we saw with Loki. A first-look image from the show was released on July 29, and now we've received the show's first trailer, which you can see below.

Hawkeye trailer: check out the show's first teaser

After months of waiting, Marvel fans finally received their first look at Hawkeye's TV show on Monday, September 13.

The series, which has big Die Hard and Home Alone energy, is unsurprisingly set around the Holiday season. We get glimpses of Renner's Barton spending time with his family post-Avengers: Endgame, but it isn't long before his past as Ronin comes back to haunt him.

Cue festive tunes, a chance encounter with Steinfeld's Bishop, plenty of humorous moments and some snippets of Barton and Bishop teaming up to take down some foes. Quite honestly, we're surprised with how fun it looks – though any show that gives us a live-action form of Lucky the Pizza Dog is bound to win us over.

Hawkeye cast: who you'll see in this show

Jeremy Renner returns to play Clint Barton in Hawkeye, reprising a role he's now been playing for 10 years since Thor's first solo movie.

After a long period of speculation, it was confirmed that actress Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Bumblebee) will play Kate Bishop, after the actress was photographed on-set in late 2020. 

Steinfeld decided to play Bishop because she trusted Marvel, according to an interview with Collider. "If there's anyone to trust, it’s Marvel. I’m just so honored to be a part of the MCU, and more so excited to be able to talk about it. It's been quite a while that I’ve been having to keep that a secret, and I'm not good at that. It's been a wonderful experience, developing this character and taking elements of her from the comics and what we know with her history. It's just very exciting to be playing a character, much like Emily, that is so loved by so many people."

It seems likely we'll see Bishop return in other projects on the big screen down the line – just like how Disney Plus show Ms. Marvel will have its titular character appear in Captain Marvel 2, otherwise known as The Marvels.

Other cast members confirmed for the show in late 2020 by Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige were Vera Farmiga as Eleanor Bishop, Kate's mother, Fra Fee as Kazi and Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne, Barton's early mentor.

Meanwhile, Alaqua Cox will portray Maya Lopez/Echo. In the comics, Echo is a deaf Native American who can perfectly copy another person's movements. She's similar to Taskmaster in that respect, and we can expect her to be the show's major (or at least secondary) antagonist. Zahn McClarnon will play Maya's father William.

A news story revealing Farmiga's casting by The Hollywood Reporter mentioned that actress Florence Pugh is also involved in the show. She played Yelena Belova in the Black Widow movie and, judging by its post-credits scene, it's likely that she'll be after Barton to seek revenge for Natasha Romanoff's death in Endgame.

Finally, Ava Russo, Ben Sakamoto and Cade Woodward will reprise their roles as Barton's children Lila, Cooper and Nathaniel.

In terms of behind-the-scenes talent, Hawkeye is being directed by Rhys Thomas (SNL, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch) and British duo Bert and Bertie. The latter worked on episodes of shows like Jim Carrey series Kidding and dark historical Hulu comedy The Great. They also directed the Amazon Prime movie Troop Zero, which received mostly positive reviews when it was release in 2019. 

Mad Men writer Jonathan Igla is the series' showrunner.

Hawkeye story: what we know

Some possible spoilers lay ahead.

For some time, the only official information we knew about Hawkeye's plot is that Clint will train Kate Bishop as his potential successor. With some scenes being filmed on-location in New York, it's likely the series is at least partially set there. The show's first trailer confirmed as much, too, with the Manhattan skyline featuring prominently.

After the events of Black Widow, though, we may finally know more about the plot of the series, including one of its villains. As we touched on above, the film's after-credits scene, which is set after Avengers: Endgame, sees Yelena Belova at the grave of Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow).

While paying her respects, Yelena is visited by her new boss Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (the same character who hired John Walker after he was dishonorably discharged during Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Valentina shows Yelena a picture of Hawkeye and explains he is the man who killed Natasha.

Given the close bond between Yelena and Natasha, it's likely she'll want to take revenge on Hawkeye, even if we know that he's actually innocent. As such, we'll probably see Florence Pugh appear in the upcoming series as one of its antagonists. We don't expect that Belova will remain a 'villain', though, as we suspect Barton will recall what happened on Vormir and Belova will drop her pursuit of him.

Beyond that, and reaching into prediction territory, there are beliefs that set photos may have given away more of what the story of Hawkeye will actually be about – and it could well focus on Clint Barton dealing with hearing loss.

There are a couple of reasons this seems likely. First, you can see Barton wearing what appear to be hearing aids in the trailer. They're small and black so, initially, they just looked like ear pieces that spies would wear. In our view, though, Barton is wearing hearing aids, so it's almost certain that he's having issues with his hearing.

Before the trailer's release, too, an eagle-eyed Redditor spotted that a background sign on the set of Hawkeye apparently translates as 'hearing therapist':

Hawkeye set photo- sign at the back translates to "Hearing Therapist" from r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers

Clint's looking a little vulnerable in this photo, and this plot would allow the MCU to explore something different with one of its heroes than we've seen before.

There is precedent for Barton's hearing loss in the comic books. Barton lost 80% of his hearing back in a 1983 comic book written by Mark Gruenwald. This idea was revived in a memorable issue of the 2012 Hawkeye comic book run by writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja, where Clint became deaf again, and the story was partially presented using sign language diagrams. 

Since the show also features deaf superhero Echo, who first appeared in Daredevil's comic series, it seems fairly likely that this subject matter is integral to the show.

That 2012 run is clearly a big influence on this series, which is apparent in a few ways. It's likely a touchstone for the dynamic of Clint as mentor and Kate as student – and the show features Lucky the Pizza Dog, a pet that Clint acquires after facing off against a criminal gang in those comics.

As with all Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptations, however, we expect this comic to only influence the show, rather than be a direct adaptation. 

Barton has his own baggage in the MCU, after all, including his family, who disappeared during the Thanos snap in Avengers: Infinity War then reappeared after the titan's defeat in Avengers: Endgame. His family's disappearance led Clint down the route of murderous rampages against criminals. Known as Ronin, the show's first trailer suggests that someone else adopts the Ronin mantle in his absence, which leads to Barton tracking them down and dealing with his past.

The rumored appearance of Pugh's Belova, too, likely hints that we'll see some aftermath from Natasha Romanoff's death in Endgame.

Finally, there is speculation that some of Netflix's now-defunct Marvel TV universe characters could bleed over into the MCU. With the multiverse in full swing in the MCU – Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange 2 will explore this in more detail – some fans believe that we may see Wilson D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk make a cameo appearance.

Take these rumors with a huge helping of salt for the time being but, if they're true, we could see Hawkeye and Kate Bishop eventually team up with Echo (or Belova) to take down Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin. That would a shocking and extremely fun turn of events, we think you'll agree.

Until we learn what the story is officially about, then, hopefully this gives you an idea of what to expect in Hawkeye when it lands.

How many Hawkeye episodes will there be?

Marvel TV shows on Disney Plus will be divided into six episodes. That confirmation comes by way of a short TV Guide Magazine write-up (per Reddit user magikarpcatcher), which reveals we'll be getting six instalments in Hawkeye's show.

There's no word yet on how long each entry will be. Judging by past live-action MCU TV shows, though, they're likely to be around 40 to 50 minutes.

Why a Hawkeye TV show makes perfect sense

It never seemed like Hawkeye was at the front of the queue to get an Avengers solo spin-off movie, but in the age of Disney Plus, the opportunity to tell a deeper story with Jeremy Renner's archer is more enticing. Finding a new angle on the character is definitely the tricky part – he's been through a lot across the different Avengers movies, and has retired from avenging twice already. 

It's hard to give Clint a clean slate at this point, then, but this is something that comic books have to deal with all the time when characters accumulate decades of personal history. 

Like so many Marvel heroes getting their own Disney Plus shows, too, we've never actually got to enjoy that much screen time with Hawkeye. His show should change that and, given how amusing it looks, add another layer to a character that audiences are already familiar with.

If the series manages to retain any of the texture of the comic that's seemingly inspired it, this could be a low-key terrific entry into the MCU canon. 

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