There Are Actually 14 Heroes That Hawkeye Has Never Met In The MCU

In order for the two dozen or so films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to hold together, writers need at least a few heroes and villains capable of jumping between franchises. For example, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton/Mark Ruffalo), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) have all remained mainstays since the first six movies that comprise Phase 1, which concluded with "The Avengers" (2012). Meanwhile, there's Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), a.k.a. Hawkeye  — the master archer and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who debuted in the third MCU installment, "Thor" (2011) and begins his television tenure with the Disney+ "Hawkeye" series in November. 

You might think hanging around for so long would guarantee that Hawkeye's met the entire MCU gang, but that is not so. In fact, there are a bunch of heroes with whom Hawkeye has yet to chat. Let's say essentially hypothetical meetings from the chaotic final battle or Tony Stark's funeral in "Endgame" don't count, and neither do characters from adjacent Marvel media timelines that aren't confirmed as part of the MCU — the Netflix shows, for example — or upcoming MCU endeavors. He hasn't met Kate Bishop yet, but we strongly suspect he's going to, so let's leave her off this list. Here are all the heroes Hawkeye hasn't gotten around to meeting yet.

At the highly traumatic conclusion of "Avengers: Infinity War," Thanos adds every Infinity Stone to his gauntlet and snaps his fingers. Instantly, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) disappears in a cloud of ash, along with half of all life in the universe. Everyone erased by "The Snap" stays dematerialized until the triumphant final sequence of " Avengers: Endgame," which means Star-Lord and Clint Barton never get a chance to exchange pleasantries. 

Maybe that's for the best? We have a difficult time envisioning these two getting along. The MCU's version of Clint is a pretty meat-and-potatoes "guy's guy"-type, whereas Star-Lord is a self-involved pop culture-obsessed goofball. Perhaps over time they could bond over their shared experiences of quipping and fighting with projectile weapons and not having superpowers.  

Ironically, Us Weekly reported that Pratt and Renner are literal next-door neighbors whose children routinely hang out together. So while their characters remain strangers, we can more-or-less take it for granted that the two actors have met on numerous occasions. 

Like the other Guardians dusted by The Snap, Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista) never bumps into Hawkeye in any instance of which the audience is made aware. 

We don't know what would happen if Drax and Hawkeye ever met, but it's safe to assume Clint would be completely annihilated by insults Drax had no idea he was making. The entire Kylosian species are notorious for their inability to understand euphemism or any other non-literal linguistic concept, and Drax in particular has not demonstrated much regard for the emotional wellbeing of folks occupying his immediate surroundings. In other words, Drax is frequently a massive jerk without deliberately meaning to cause any harm. 

After a few casually-deployed comments about how it must be tricky to feel adequate when your thing is shooting arrows and your teammate is the actual God of Thunder, or how hard it is to focus on fighting evil when folks keep saying you suck, Clint would surely be reduced to weeping pitifully. Perhaps the rest of the MCU regulars should be grateful that these two never had to work together in any context where innocent lives were at risk.    

Hawkeye introduces himself to Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in "Captain America: Civil War" (2016) during the gargantuan fight scene in the abandoned airfield midway through the movie, which also marks Clint's first encounter with Spider-Man (Tom Holland). But since Hawkeye is not among the Avengers who travel to Wakanda in "Avengers: Infinity War," and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) winds up snapped out of existence until the end of "Endgame," the two characters remain relative strangers. 

But out of all the MCU characters Hawkeye hasn't met yet, isn't Shuri the most likely to make Clint's acquaintance in the foreseeable future? It may be speculation and rumor-mongering — but in light of Boseman's death in 2020 and the MCU's astute decision against recasting T'Challa, Shuri seems likely to inherit an expanded role within the Wakandan government, and by extension, within the MCU. So as long as Clint Barton remains part of the ongoing MCU story, and Jeremy Renner stays in the Disney Corporation's good graces, Shuri and Clint are bound to bump into each other eventually, right? 

The last surviving member of Asgard's once-dominant battalion of horse-riding female soldiers, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) arrived in the MCU as of "Thor: Ragnarok," swinging back into action for "Avengers: Endgame," and has yet to experience Clint Barton in any first-person sense. In fact, Clint's direct knowledge of Asgardians, in general, remains limited — he's met Thor and Loki,but that's about it. 

It's a little difficult to envision circumstances that might put them in the same room. We know a portion of the Disney+ "Hawkeye" series takes place in New York City, whereas at the conclusion of "Endgame," Valkyrie's beginning her reign as the king of New Asgard while Thor jaunts off for an adventure in outer space. So unless Hawkeye ends up needing to travel to Norway for some reason, we can take it for granted that he won't be getting any more familiar with Valkyrie.

Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) — the Sorcerer Supreme, and certainly a bona fide MCU A-list hero by the end of "Avengers: Endgame" — first encounters Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner at the onset of "Avengers: Infinity War." Like half of everyone in the universe, Strange stops existing at the end of "Infinity War," and resumes existing at the conclusion of "Endgame." So, as is the case with Shuri and most of the Guardians, he never finds himself in a place or time that allows him to get to know Hawkeye. Strange hasn't met either of the Captains America or Captain Marvel, either. He's got some catching up to do. 

Whether or not Doctor Strange will run into Clint Barton probably depends on how much more the MCU decides to do with the latter character. We know Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) debuts in the upcoming "Hawkeye" Disney+ series, leading, perhaps, to Clint's retirement. On the other hand, Kate and Clint could continue as separate characters who share a codename, like they do in the comics. Cumberbatch's confirmed upcoming MCU endeavors include "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021) and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022), both of which appear to carry significant implications for the MCU going forward. So if Clint sticks around, maybe he'll bump into Stephen Strange. Or maybe not?  

With the exception of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the Avengers gang doesn't meet Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) until she responds to a recently-dusted Fury's beeper alert during the after-credits scene of "Captain Marvel" (2019).  Meanwhile, Clint Barton is enjoying a comfortable life in Missouri with his family until they all suddenly vanish. After that, he embarks upon a kill-crazy rampage out of a lack of anything better to do. The Avengers eventually track Clint down and bring him back into the fold, but by then, Captain Marvel has gone too high, too far, and too fast to be within planetary range for a meeting with Hawkeye.  

The MCU's versions of Hawkeye and Captain Marvel don't have a ton of direct commonalities, but we can make connections if we look at them from perspectives outside of their shared film timeline. They're both headlining characters of some of Marvel Comics' most influential efforts of the millennium thus far — namely Matt Fraction and artist David Aja's "Hawkeye" series plus writer Kelly Sue Deconnick's multiple runs with "Captain Marvel," which both happened to begin publication in 2012. 

In addition, some members of the MCU faithful argue that the macro-franchise has underutilized both characters. Apart from his yet-to-premiere Disney+ series and "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015) — objectively the dumbest Avengers movie — Hawkeye doesn't get a ton of time to shine. Outside of her own movie, Carol's basically treated like a Deus ex Machina with dialogue.  

While the multiverse as depicted in Disney+'s "What If?" animated series tells a different story, Howard the Duck has not yet directly interacted with any MCU heroes, including Hawkeye. 

This raises some intriguing questions — albeit the kind that drift away from our primary topic. Why has Howard decided to remain on the sidelines? Will he be making himself more visible and proactive within the larger MCU fray in any future films or television shows?  The rumor mill says maybe we'll see more Howard the Duck in the MCU, and the macro-franchise has had pretty good luck with grouchy talking animals in the past, but rumors are still just rumors.   

For now, we'll just have to be happy to see Hawkeye meet Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and Echo (Alaqua Cox), who are all expected to appear in "Hawkeye" the TV show, even though none of them are as awesome as Howard the Duck.