Hawkeye Featurette Introduces Kate Bishop, Marvel's Next Great Archer
With each and every new Marvel streaming project these days, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to grow and expand beyond the confines of its most familiar, pre-established heroes. "WandaVision" introduced a whole new villain in Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness, who will be receiving her own spin-off show based on her rampant popularity among fans on social media. "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" added even more layers to a pair of supporting characters from the movies, all while setting up a series-long foil in Wyatt Russell's John Walker. "Loki," of course, brought back a fan-favorite character but also gave viewers another character to become attached to with Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). Now, "Hawkeye" is gearing up to launch Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop into the upper echelon of Marvel heroes.
Last night, Marvel debuted the first two episodes of their newest series on Disney+ — you can read /Film's review by Ethan Anderton here — and also released a brand-new featurette, focusing on how the actor and creative team brought Kate Bishop into the fold. Check it out below.
Hawkeye Featurette
"Can I tell you a secret? I'm working with an Avenger!"
Brought to life by Hailee Steinfeld, Kate Bishop's infectious energy and easy chemistry with Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton has come up as a consistent highlight in many of the first reactions to the new series. This new look at the character sure seems to indicate that Marvel knows what they have on their hands with this charismatic new hero, taking viewers on a behind-the-scenes tour with Steinfeld, directing team Amber Finlayson and Katie Ellwood (who go by Bert and Bertie, respectively), director Rhys Thomas, and Renner as well.
Commenting on the whirlwind of prep work she had to undergo before filming commenced, Steinfeld says, "Everything happened very quickly: archery lessons, training in LA on the stunt side of things, hand-to-hand combat. I love that this job left me no excuse but to get to a place where I could come here and be shown something and I would be able to pick up on it quickly."
But imbuing Kate Bishop with a formidable array of superhero abilities was only half the battle. The directors on the series made a point to depict the franchise's newest female hero as well-rounded and fully fleshed out as possible. As Bert puts it, "The kind of hope for us was bringing a female superhero that, it's not about being superhuman. It's about being super skilled and funny as anything." Thomas, who /Film interviewed about bringing his "SNL" background to "Hawkeye," echoed those thoughts and said, "We knew we wanted to contrast her with Clint. You know, that kind of classic buddy cop sort of energy of these two divergent personalities kind of meeting."
Should all go according to plan, fans will have an entirely new character to root for and be invested in by the end of the series. The first two episodes of "Hawkeye" are currently streaming on Disney+.