Multiple attempts have been made throughout the years to produce a successful Daredevil franchise, from the 2003 film starring Ben Affleck to a more recent attempt by Netflix with a series that saw a run of three seasons before ending in 2018. Despite the number of attempts however, no one has been successful in bringing the character to the forefront of the MCU. Additionally, not only did Netflix fail to make the Daredevil character a fan favorite, other Netflix produced Marvel series also failed to see substantial success, such as Mike Colter’sLuke Cage and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones. Now that Marvel’s run of series on Netflix has seemingly ended,, Disney is looking to take a chance on a different character, while also bringing their series to their own Disney+ platform: the next Marvel series will star and follow along with Jeremy Renner’s fan-favorite Hawkeye character.
The film is said to run similarly to the original comic series, with Hawkeye undertaking a protege, to be played by Hailee Steinfeld, with their adventures closely following those that took place in the comics. An intriguing point of difference however will be Hawkeye’s newfound rivalry with Swordsman, being played by Tony Dalton, who mentored Hawkeye in the original comic series. This shines a light on some of the darker themes the series is set to explore, also following the loss of Hawkeye’s family in the most recent Avengers film and building upon his already dark past as a hardened soldier. While proper respect will certainly be shown to the original comic series, these themes should add an interesting layer to the story of an already different character.
The upcoming series is set to take place in New York City, and has begun filming in Manhattan just this past week as Disney attempts to keep the ball rolling regardless of the pandemic. Set photos are slowly beginning to emerge, with Renner and Steinfeld showing ample amounts of excitement on their respective social media accounts since the start of production, only building further excitement amongst fans as well. While the series is set to take place in 2025, two years following the end of Avengers: Endgame, hopefully fans will not have to wait until then for Hawkeye to reach Disney+.
