Disney+ Should Renew Hawkeye for Season 2 Already
Photo Courtesy of Disney+
The Marvel Cinematic Universe post-Avengers: Endgame has been something of a mixed bag, with too few creative highs competing with too many narrative lows for a few minutes of attention. There’s an argument to be made that Phase 4 should have been one of consolidation rather than further expansion—one that valued quality over quantity—but I don’t run Marvel or Disney, I just write words on the internet about TV shows. Which is why I’m going to ignore the facts in favor of a silly but sincere Christmas wish: Renew Hawkeye for Season 2, you cowards!
Now, you might say, “Hey, didn’t you just write an article arguing that Disney+ should start moving away from its Marvel-and-Star-Wars-heavy lineup to focus on more original ideas?” And to that I would say, Yes, I did write that! Thank you for remembering. I also still believe that as an overall programming strategy. But Hawkeye isn’t a new show and therefore this does not break my own rules that I made up.
Hawkeye was the fourth live-action Marvel series to hit Disney+, arriving on the platform just in time for the 2021 holiday season. After the stellar WandaVision, disappointing The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and the potentially-only-exists-to-keep-Tom-Hiddleston-in-the-MCU Loki, the Christmas-themed comedy was proof the next chapter of the MCU would benefit from more low-key, stand-alone adventures featuring distinct personalities that prioritize character development over epic, world-saving stakes. (If that was not a major argument for why the MCU should expand into TV beyond driving Disney+ subscriptions, it should have been.)
In addition to introducing us to Hailee Steinfeld’s young archer Kate Bishop, Hawkeye closed the loop on the heartbreaking death of Scarlett Johannson’s Natasha Romanoff for multiple characters while filling in the gaps of Clint Barton’s (Jeremy Renner) time as Ronan. Kate’s enthusiasm breathed life into an aging franchise, while her chemistry with Renner as Clint—a tired, beaten down superhero three seconds away from yelling he’s “too old for this shit”—allowed for a goofy, lighthearted atmosphere, the kind we expected to see between Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier but were rudely denied. Sure, Hawkeye’s plot was sometimes clunky, and Vera Farmiga was in an entirely different show from the rest of the cast, but a welcome appearance from Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, a catchy original song from the in-universe Broadway hit Rogers: The Musical, and a silly LARPing subplot ensured that Hawkeye was, while not a perfect show, a perfect balance of superhero and shenanigans.