AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Since the first trailer there has been much speculation about whether Hawkeye would be in the movie and what his role would be. Here's our long-standing article charting the whole tortured history including comment from the Russo brothers.

LATEST UPDATE: If you've seen Avengers: Infinity War you will now be aware that, no, Hawkeye isn't in the movie. Not in the post-credits, nothing. Instead we learn that because he has a family he couldn't afford to be a fugitive and instead took a plea deal after the events of Captain America: Civil War and he's under house arrest - he's unable to help out his team mates in the battle against Thanos.

But as we see at the end of Infinity War Thanos is victorious. He snaps his fingers and suddenly half of the population of the Universe is dead. We know that this doesn't include Hawkeye himself - we've seen shots from the set (which we didn't know at the time weren't from Infinity War) with him in them. And it looks like he'll be back under the new mantel of Ronin (see below for more on this).

Given how Infinity War ends we think it's more likely that, gulp, some (all?) of Hawkeye's family are casualties of the 'Infinity Snap' drawing Clint back into the action...

UPDATE: The plot thickens on the 'where the f- is Hawkeye?!' front. Talking to io9, the Russos have hinted again that the Hawkster might not be in it until the end, if at all.

"As we were working on both films, we were thinking about story real estate. We had the luxury of cracking both scripts at the same time and we wanted to give each character, especially the original Avengers, their moments.

"It led us to certain choices, especially considering the events of Civil War where [Hawkeye's] included in this group of insurgents and has to deal with the ramifications of siding against the US government. So that led us to a very specific story with him that, as I've said before, is a long play, not a short play. Audiences just need to be patient."

What does it all mean?! Will he be in a post-credits scene? Will he pop up in the third act?

Disney

Kevin Feige reckons the secrecy around the character has done Hawkeye all the favours.

"I think it's one of the best things that ever happened to Hawkeye," Feige told io9. "We [at Marvel] love Hawkeye. There are big, big story things coming up for Hawkeye, and Jeremy Renner is as strong an actor as anyone in the MCU and awesome as this character.

"But 'the guy with the bow and arrow jokes', right? There are a lot of 'guy with bow and arrow' jokes. He even makes 'guy with a bow and arrow' jokes in some of the movies.

"So I love that people go from, 'Oh, Hawkeye is just lucky to be there,' to, 'Oh where is he? He's not there? What's going to happen? We need Hawkeye. We want more Hawkeye.' I love it. It's the best."

UPDATE: In the latest move in Avengers: Infinity War's ongoing 'Where's Hawkeye?' saga, the Russos have asked fans to be patient.

"We keep saying, 'Patience is a virtue'," Joe Russo told JOE.ie. "We did not forget the twice-nominated Jeremy Renner. We cooked up a story for him that is a little bit of a long play. Not a short play."

Marvel Studios

UPDATE: After Hawkeye didn't even get his own character poster when there were 22(!) others released, the Russo Brothers have again spoken about his absence from marketing materials.

"All will be explained when people see the movie," Anthony Russo told Total Film, which is obviously super helpful and clears everything up, ominously adding that his continued absence is "all tied into the story".

UPDATE: He's not in the new trailer either...

UPDATE: All this 'no Hawkeye' business hasn't gone unnoticed by directors the Russo brothers. As reported on CBR.com, though Jeremy Renner's Avenger hasn't yet appeared in the publicity material, certain sites who've had set visits attest that he is in the movie.

And now Joe Russo has confirmed that he'll have a key role.

"Characters on Cap's team made certain decisions," he said, "and others made other decisions that led to different paths in them dealing with oversight in this movie in a different way. So Hawkeye's on his own journey in this movie."

Anthony Russo agreed saying: "He has a unique reaction to the Civil War situation that puts him in a special spot in this film."

UPDATE: New Avengers: Infinity artwork arrives and guess what - no Hawkeye! Which possibly adds weight to our theory. Or might indicate that he's hardly/not in Infinity War AT ALL and just returns for Avengers: 4...

Disney

UPDATE: A new Avengers: Infinity War trailer landed this weekend at the Super Bowl and we're all, quite rightly going nuts for it. In it, we see Steve Rogers' new shields (yep, plural), as well as a much better look a Black Widow's blonde locks and Tony Stark's messed up hand. But what we still DON'T see is any of Hawkeye. Ok, it could mean he's not in it that much, but we reckon it's something more interesting...

ORIGINAL STORY

Now obviously we are aware that Avengers: Infinity War is going to feature a squillion superheroes (oh okay, at least 67 according to directors the Russo brothers, and here's who they all are).

And we know the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer is only 2 mins and 24 seconds long, and they therefore aren't going to be able to show every single one of the returning characters.

We totally get that.

Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) isn't in the trailer (unless he is, but tiny), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) isn't in the trailer, and nor is The Collector (Benecio Del Toro). But the absence of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is a bit more significant and could well indicate what the character's arc might be in Infinity War and beyond.

We last saw Hawkeye aka Clint Barton in Captain America: Civil War. After retiring to spend some time with his family at the end of Age of Ultron, he re-emerged to save Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and then sided with Cap (Chris Evans) over the Sokovia Accords, getting himself locked away in prison The Raft by #team Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr). At the end of the movie Cap breaks him and the rest of his allies (Wanda, Ant-Man and The Falcon) out and they go on the run.

*Breathe*

You would imagine, then, that with Thanos's arrival and a massive call to arms for Avengers old and new, Hawkeye would want to join the fray.

Disney Marvel Studios

His most likely gang would be Cap, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Falcon, as well as his old friend Black Widow (who might have played the sides in Civil War but whom he'd still feel allegiance to).

But there's no sign of Hawkeye in the scene above, which seems to show War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Cap, Bucky, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Falcon (Anthony Mackie) Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) charging into battle with the Wakandan army.

Wanda isn't in this scene, true, but we see that she's spending some quality time with Vision (Paul Bettany). These guys look like they'd appreciate some privacy, and don't need a third-wheel Hawkeye hanging about.

Marvel Studios

Could he have defected and joined up with Iron Man and his gang? Well possibly, but it looks more like Stark is hanging out with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong), as well as Bruce Banner. It looks like they head to Wakanda together later, too, as we see Stark in the Hulkbuster costume – but still no sign of Hawkeye.

He's almost certainly not with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who we last saw in space after Thor: Ragnarok and who looks, from the final coda at the end of the trailer, to be hooking up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Marvel Studios

No, we reckon Hawkeye isn't part of any of these gangs. We think the fact that he's not in the trailer is because he's going to be taking on the mantle of 'Ronin' in Avengers: Infinity War, ahead of Avengers 4.

Leaked set photos from Avengers 4 showing a glimpse of the Ronin leg armour back up the theory that he'll be making this transition to take on the identity of the 'masterless Samurai' and lone warrior from the comics, but there's been no indication yet this would happen in Infinity War.

In the comics, he's the second character to take this name and it happens when he rejoins the new Avengers after the fall-out from Civil War – which would make sense in the timeline of the movies.

Marvel Comics

If he is going to become Ronin in Infinity War, that might be another reason he doesn't make the trailer: a reveal of him in costume could be more of a spoiler than Marvel wants to give out at this stage.

In the comics, Clint Barton does become Hawkeye again later, but given the Russos' insistence that Avengers 4 will very much mark the end of an era, we think it's entirely plausible that turning lone wolf will be the final part of Barton's arc.

Of course, it's possible he's not in the trailer because he's just not in the movie very much. Because, well, he's not that interesting...

Avengers: Infinity War opens in UK cinemas on April 27, 2018.

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