Hawkeye: Jeremy Renner Unveils Disney+ Series' Intro

Make way for the Avenging Archer(s).

At Marvel Studios' San Diego Comic-Con panel this past weekend, Avengers: Endgame star Jeremy Renner — who has portrayed Clint Barton/Hawkeye in the MCU since 2011 — treated fans to the intro to Hawkeye, his upcoming Disney+ limited series. 

Renner posted a video of the intro, displayed on a giant screen for all of the fans packed into Hall H, to his Instagram account. It's stark, simple, bold, and highly reminiscent of the aesthetic of Matt Fraction and David Aja's acclaimed comics run on the character; while it doesn't feature much beyond stylized representations of targets and arrows, it did boast one brief moment that made the the crowd go absolutely bonkers. See if you can pinpoint it.

If you thought you might have spotted the silhouette of a Lady Hawkeye, well, you're not too far off. It was confirmed at the SDCC panel that Hawkeye will finally introduce the MCU's version of Kate Bishop, who has a long and interesting history in Marvel comics. 

The character first appeared in the pages of Young Avengers #1, published in 2005. A headstrong youngster with an extremely independent personality, Kate was left in the care of her emotionally distant father after the accidental death of her mother. Late one night, she happened to catch sight of her father just beating the crap out of an unidentified man in his study — causing her to become severely disillusioned with him, but also piquing her curiosity.

She decided to follow dear old Dad to a secret meet-up with the criminal mastermind known as El Matador, who wasn't inclined to miss out on a good business opportunity. Spotting the young girl, the villain kidnapped her and held her for ransom — and that's when the man who would become Kate's new role model entered the picture. 

It turned out that El Matador had been under surveillance by Hawkeye, who rescued Kate when the Avengers arrived on the scene to dismantle the villain's operation. Returned to her father, Kate began looking up to the Avenger from afar, but initially had no designs on becoming a superhero herself.

This all changed when, as a teen, Kate was assaulted during a walk in New York's Central Park. Deciding that she needed to be capable of defending herself, she began studying an array of disciplines including various forms of martial arts, swordfighting, and — of course — archery.

These formative events in Kate's life all came to a head when, on the occasion of her sister's wedding, a group of armed gunmen took the entire wedding party hostage. Their efforts were foiled by the (not officially sanctioned) "Young Avengers": Thor Junior, Iron Kid, Teen Hulk, and Lieutenant America, who promptly celebrated their success by accidentally starting a fire and fleeing the scene before any actual Avengers could arrive.

While laid up in the hospital after the incident, Kate was approached by Cassie Lang, the daughter of Ant-Man, with a proposition to hunt down the would-be heroes and insinuate themselves into the tea,. They did, and not long after, Kate and Cassie were instrumental in stopping the onslaught of Kang the Conqueror, earning them the favor of the other team members.

While the Old Avengers were initially highly reluctant to have anything to do with the squad of upstarts, they eventually relented after the young team refused to stop hero-ing (and after Kate blamed the injury of one of her teammates on Captain America, who had refused to train them as he does with virtually every Avenger). Figuring that the only other person to ever stand up to him in such a fashion was Barton (who was "dead" at the time), Cap gifted Kate with Barton's old bow and proclaimed her the new Hawkeye.

Kate went on to a distinguished career as a hero, even though her relationship with Barton (who, of course, didn't stay dead for long) proved to be complicated. Though Barton has at times served as a mentor for the new girl, the two have also shared something of a rivalry over the years. It appears that in the Disney+ series, Barton's mentorship of Kate will take center stage, as evidenced by Renner's comment to the SDCC crowd: "I get to teach someone else to be a superhero without superpowers," he said with a chuckle, "and I think that's fantastic."

At this point, nobody other than Renner has been announced to be taking part in the show, but Disney and Marvel have plenty of time to figure it all out. Hawkeye will be among the last of the MCU limited series offerings (that we currently know of) to show up on Disney+. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be first up, debuting in the fall of next year; next will come Loki and WandaVision, both in the spring of 2021, before Hawkeye finally makes its way to the small screen that fall.

Of course, we'll be keeping our ears to the ground for any details on these series in the meantime, and we'll keep you informed.