Every big team has at least one member who doesn't get as much attention as everyone else, and in the case of Marvel's Avengers, that member would be Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye. The archery-focused hero has many fans hoping he'll get a standalone project in the future, but the comic-loving filmmaker Kevin Smith doesn't necessarily share in those desires. At least that's not what it sounded like when he presented his hilariously bad pitch for a Hawkeye TV show. In his words:
Oh, God, come on. Didn't they take like...Remember in the middle of Age of Ultron, they showed us a whole episode of The Hawkeye Show and nobody wanted to watch it? We all tried to change the channel but it was a movie so we had to sit through it and shit. Yeah, the Hawkeye show I'd be interested in is like, [in the] opening episode he gets killed, and we spend the rest of the episodes with everyone going, 'He was a pretty good guy.' And then they go on some adventure and shit like that.
To be sure, Kevin Smith's idea probably isn't one that will have Hawkeye's most vocal proponents hitting up social media to demand Marvel allow him to make it. He said it in jest, obviously, drawing attention to the fact that Hawkeye's abilities and character development aren't on the same tier as those of other fan-favorite Avengers like Iron Man and Captain America. But a Hawkeye TV show would probably be the best way to reverse those perceptions, giving Clint Barton more meaningful material to sink his teeth-adorned arrows into.
Still, even taking Hawkeye's popularity out of the equation, Kevin Smith's idea is a pretty interesting take on a superhero TV show in any context. Starting a storyline off with the death of a costumed hero isn't a common thread in live-action dramas (or comedies). The comic adaptation Powers did it, and Watchmen started off with an investigation into The Comedian's death. It so won't happen with any high-profile properties like the Avengers. but it's fun to imagine how a project like that would work.
Now I'm overly curious in seeing this concept being taken to its most absurd ends, with the Avengers not only calling Hawkeye a "pretty good guy" after his death, but also trying to fool the world into thinking he is still alive, Weekend at Bernie's-style. Probably not the kind of project that Jeremy Renner would crawl through glass to secure, but it could definitely show off his physical comedy chops.
Kevin Smith joked about a Hawkeye TV show during a taping of his podcast Fatman on Batman, in response to a question about it. You can watch the entire podcast below, or skip to around the 1:19:00 mark to hear the quote itself, which is followed by a similar answer about a Gambit TV show.
While a standalone TV show isn't on the horizon, fans can find Hawkeye returning to the big screen for more brawls in Avengers 4, which will hit theaters on May 3, 2019. In the meantime, fans can look forward to hearing more about live-action TV shows centering on Loki and Scarlet Witch, and our fall TV premiere schedule will clue everyone in on all the shows hitting primetime soon.
