During his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye has been presented as a rather gruff character. Even when not being mentally manipulated by Loki, he has demonstrated a military mentality, taking things like trust and loyalty to his fellow soldiers very seriously. So what happens when a personality like that is introduced to some new, odd characters like Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver? The answer is a lot of skepticism and concern.
Last summer, we were given the exciting opportunity to visit the set of The Avengers: Age of Ultron with a small group of other journalists, and it was while interviewing Jeremy Renner that he explained his complicated relationship with two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest super powered characters. While he couldn’t go into extreme details about the connection, the actor explained that there is a close relationship between Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver in the upcoming summer blockbuster, but that it’s a relationship initially built on doubt and mistrust. Said the actor,
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are great characters, and my character and them have a lot to do together. They’re a little blurry on where they stand and as far as good as bad… I think I’m sort of policing them to see if they’re worthy or not of being good guys or bad guys. I question them a lot.
Rather than just being a jerk, though, there actually is a very good explanation as to why Hawkeye would be a little more on the judgmental side. After all, if Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are going to be heroes fighting alongside the likes of The Avengers, then Hawkeye needs to be 100 percent sure that he won’t be stabbed in the back. As Jeremy Renner put it,
He’s always very skeptical of new people, 'cause it’s sort of a military kind of thinking in the sense of like, I have to trust that you have my six or you have my back while I’m trying to manifest something up here. You have to work as a unit, as a team, otherwise we all fail or I die or somebody else dies. So that’s where the skepticism comes in. It’s not to just to be grumpy or not to like somebody. It’s all there for a reason, and that plays a lot in this movie.
It’s an interesting detail to learn of the close relationship between Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, if not only because it has been promised for a long time that Jeremy Renner would get a bigger role in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and because we’re still not entirely sure exactly how the two new characters fit into the plot of the movie. What is it specifically that leads the characters down the same path? That’s a question that is still without an answer.
All of the mysteries of The Avengers: Age of Ultron will be revealed when the film finally arrives in theaters on May 1st, but until then, stay tuned for more of our coverage from the set!
