At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos snapped his Infinity Stones-powered fingers and made half of all life disappear in the universe. Five years after that event, the Earth’s Mightiest Surviving Heroes were able to undo that genocide, but what is now known as the Blip has become one of the biggest moments in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. Every time a new character is introduced to this superhero franchise, inevitably some fans will ask if that person was dusted by the Mad Titan or not, and Hawkeye’s Hailee Steinfeld recently cleared up whether her MCU character, Kate Bishop, suffered that fate.
Other than the opening sequence of Hawkeye’s first episode (“Never Meet Your Heroes”), which saw a young Kate Bishop witness Clint Barton in action during The Battle of New York, we never looked back on Kate’s life prior to the events of the Disney+ series. Fortunately, for those of you who were wondering about Kate’s fate during The Blip, Hailee Steinfeld informed The Wrap that Kate was among those who escaped being eradicated by Thanos, saying:
No, I believe that we see her survive and we see, you know, loss there as well. And that didn’t happen to her.
That lines up. During Hawkeye’s second episode (“Hide and Seek”), Kate Bishop told Clint Barton she’s 22 years old, and executive producer Rhys Thomas confirmed on Twitter that this Disney+ series is set in 2024, a year after Avengers: Endgame. With The Battle of New York taking place in 2012 (the same year The Avengers came out in real life), Kate would have around 10 years old when she first saw her archer idol. Had Kate been snapped away in 2018, she would have only been around 17 years old during Hawkeye.
Hailee Steinfeld’s comment indicates that a scene might have been shot showing Kate Bishop surviving the Blip, similar to what we saw Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova go through in “Ronin.” Alas, such a moment was never shown in Hawkeye, and since Marvel Studios hasn’t released deleted scenes for any of its Disney+ shows, who knows it will ever see it. Still, it’s nice to have a little more background on Steinfeld’s Kate, although now I’m curious about the “loss” Steinfeld mentioned. Did Kate’s mother, Eleanor Bishop, get snapped away, or a person close to her we didn’t meet?
Regardless, Hailee Steinfeld made a big splash as Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, with her character joining Clint Barton in taking down the Tracksuit Mafia, which was eventually revealed to be led by Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. The Kingpin. Unfortunately, Kate learned along the way that her mother was in cahoots with Kingpin, and ultimately saw that her mother was arrested for the murder of Armand Duquesne. On the bright side of things, Kate got to celebrate Christmas with the Bartons and is likely a surrogate member of the family now with her dog Lucky. As of this writing, it hasn’t been announced when or even if we’ll see Steinfeld back as Bishop, but considering the character’s popularity, it stands to reason that Hawkeye won’t be her only outing in the MCU.
As we wait for word on what the future holds in store for Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on other upcoming MCU TV shows. Next up on that front is Moon Knight, which premieres March 30 on Disney+.
