The Real Reason You'll Never See This Fun Hawkeye Post-Credits Scene
Warning: Contains spoilers for Season 1 of "Hawkeye"
This past Christmas season, Marvel fans were entertained by "Hawkeye," the six-episode, holiday-themed limited series from Disney+ (though we're not sure how "limited" it will be, if fan excitement for a potential Season 2 pans out) surrounding its titular character (Jeremy Renner) and his reluctant journey to start training eager young apprentice Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). There are a lot of twists and turns stuffed into those six episodes, and if you haven't watched it yet, you're missing out.
In any case, after the initial credits of the final episode — in typical Marvel fashion — audiences were pleasantly surprised by an extended after-credits cutscene which revisits a funny moment from earlier in the season. In Episode 1, the show squeezed in a farcical musical-within-a-show Broadway theatrical production of "Rogers: The Musical," with a highly reimagined Battle of New York, and while the audience only got to see brief snippets of the play before the plot moved on, this final post-credits scene offered the full, uninterrupted musical number.
However, this wasn't originally intended to be the scene that made the final cut. Instead, the original scene that got edited out would've answered a question left lingering at the end of the series.
The original scene may have been a little too 'owl-ful' for Disney's branding
First off, no — as far as questions being answered, there was never going to be a scene answering whether a certain villainous character is alive (though yes, based on the comics, he's probably still kicking). Instead, the cut scene would've shown what happens to those unfortunate, shrunken-down Tracksuit Mafia members who get scooped up an owl. Elaina Scott, one of the animators working behind the scenes on the show, barely waited until the finale was released before spilling the beans on Twitter about what viewers were missing out on. Her tweet read "The post credits [on] the finale of Hawkeye was meant to have the owl taking the [bros] to its nest, kinda sad that they cut it. Would have been hilarious!!"
That's right: instead of an extended musical number that was equal parts cringe, cheese, and humor, audiences were supposed to see exactly how a hungry owl deals with a bus full of Tracksuit Mafia bros who've had an unfortunate run-in with a Pym-powered trick arrow. For anyone who is unfamiliar with how owls work, they aren't nearly as cute and cuddly when they're viciously tearing into their prey with razor sharp talons and devouring them.
The abandoned scene probably wasn't as graphic as all that, though it's worth noting that some viewers, such as @kilgoretrout321, tweeted their disagreement about how "hilarious" the concept was. Given Disney's family-friendly branding — and the mostly TV-14 rating that the show tried to stick to — it makes sense why that clip didn't make the cut. But we're sure that fans of the show who aren't so squeamish would love a chance to see it someday.