The Iron Man Reference You Missed In The Hawkeye Premiere
"Hawkeye" is finally here, and it wastes no time in introducing Marvel fans to Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and her own archery abilities. The show reveals that she's obsessed with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) because she saw him fight the Chitauri at the end of "The Avengers." Thanks to an artistic opening credits sequence, it's clear that Kate spends most of her life training as a martial artist as well as the "world's greatest archer" — as she calls herself. Her happy-go-lucky, spontaneous streak contrasts nicely against Clint Barton's dour reservedness, that's for sure.
The hero is on a well-needed holiday break with his kids when the series picks up, and he's still recovering from the events of "Avengers: Endgame." Clint even gets a little choked up when he's reminded of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) when he watches "Rogers: The Musical" with his family. On the other hand, he's not as affected by seeing one of the actors play Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), but obviously, Clint and Natasha have a much closer relationship in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Clint and Tony, meanwhile, are more like friendly colleagues.
Speaking of Iron Man, there's a surprising reference to the 2008 film in the "Hawkeye" premiere that you might've missed.
Kate Bishop destroys Stane Tower
The 2012 flashback kicks things off by explaining that Kate Bishop's dad dies during the Chitauri invasion, and Kate is raised solely by her mother, Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga). But when it jumps forward into the present day, Kate is up to mischief at college with her friends. She's been dared to ring the bell in a clocktower by shooting an arrow at it. However, this quickly backfires when she hits it too hard and the bell winds up destroying the top of the building. Oops. But it's quite fitting since a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot reveals the building is named "Stane Tower" — as in Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges).
Marvel fans will remember that Stane is the secret villain in "Iron Man," and he's the one who orchestrated Tony's kidnapping at the hands of the Ten Rings in the first place. He's resentful of Tony for taking over control of the company when it was Stane and Howard Stark (John Slattery) who built it into the giant corporation that it is. Although he's unveiled as a bad guy in the 2008 movie, his status as a wealthy corporate businessman clearly earned him some clout along the way. Nonetheless, his building is not quite as impressive as Stark Tower, which later becomes the Avengers Tower.
All told, Stane Tower is a nice nod to how far the MCU has come since the early days of "Iron Man."