Marvel Studios spent much of 2021 transitioning its cinematic heavyweight franchise onto the small screen through the Disney Plus streaming service. To say it successfully did so would be an understatement, as there wasn’t a hiccup in sight, with shows WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and animated series What If…? all gripping viewers throughout the year. It then capped the year off with Hawkeye, which proved to be a pleasant surprise.
Hawkeye saw Jeremy Renner reprise his role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies as Clint Barton. This time, though, he was joined by Hailee Steinfeld, who played Clint’s superfan and protégé Kate Bishop. It was a unique partnership that provided viewers with some of the best entertainment the MCU had produced in an already-fantastic year for the franchise. The buddy action comedy was an unexpected treat, particularly because Ms. Marvel was supposed to be released at the end of the year instead, but its festive setting of New York City at Christmas made it the perfect holiday delight for viewers.
Since its conclusion over two years ago, fans have been wondering if a second season is on the cards. Marvel has only renewed one of its live-action shows for a season 2 at this point but the studio also isn’t forthcoming about whether a show has concluded either, so that makes it hard to know whether Hawkeye could return for another season in the future. And yet, a very intriguing rumor suggests that it’s possible.
Hawkeye season 2 rumored to be happening (but Marvel has yet to announce it)
Marvel has yet to officially announce if Hawkeye will return for a second season. The show concluded its first season run in December 2021 and there hasn’t been any definitive confirmation on if it will return. However, there have been a number of signs that it could make a comeback; the most promising being a recent rumor.
According to Marvel scooper, MyTimeToShineHello, Hawkeye will return for a second season that would reunite stars Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld for another adventure. It's also rumored to feature Clint Barton's antagonistic brother Barney and adapt The Raid storyline as both Clint and Kate would end up trapped in one specific location.
Of course, it's important to once again note that this is just a rumor and has yet be officially confirmed by Marvel, but in this new era of "less-is-more" that the studio is going for, it wouldn't be surprising if they reversed course on moving on from Hawkeye and went back to one of its earliest Disney Plus success stories. That's also not the only evidence of a potential second season, either.
Another thing that has given fans hope that the show will return for a second season is the fact that Marvel campaigned for the show to receive Emmy consideration in the “Outstanding Comedy Series” category instead of the “Limited Series” category. This came after the studio marketed the show as a limited series, suggesting that it had changed its mind.
The vast majority of Marvel Studios shows to stream on Disney Plus are miniseries/limited series, but there are exceptions to that rule. Loki was the first of the shows to return for a second season, while animated outing What If…? also returned for season 2 (and will also return for a third).
As far as whether that could actually happen for Hawkeye, director Rhys Thomas spoke to Collider in 2021 about the future of the show and revealed he would “gladly enjoy” returning for a second season if Marvel renewed it.
"I cannot speak to future plans in the tradition of secrecy. Again, the show coming out, you never know how it’s going to be received and it has been amazing to see how warmly people have taken it and enjoyed it. And it’s been great to see Hailee’s character embraced and sort of land so firmly in the MCU. I sincerely look forward to where that character goes next. And yes, I loved walking on the streets of the MCU and would gladly enjoy doing it again."Rhys Thomas
Thomas acknowledges that fans quickly grew fond of Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop and that is very much the case. Prior to the show’s arrival, fans were ready to see Kate Bishop make her MCU debut and Steinfeld’s performance endeared her to viewers very quickly.
Irrespective of whether we see Hailee Steinfeld back in Hawkeye season 2, it very much feels like this is only the beginning of Kate’s stint in the MCU.
What would a potential second season of Hawkeye be about?
If Marvel Studios does opt to renew Hawkeye for a second season, it’s highly likely that it would shift gears from the first season. While the original six-episode run was very much a buddy comedy about Kate Bishop learning how to be a superhero from Hawkeye himself Clint Barton, season 2 would probably place more of a focus on Kate.
The aforementioned report does suggest that there will be a very different vibe to the second season if it comes to fruition in the way that it's rumored to. It claims that Kate and Clint will spend most of the season trapped in one location, which would make for a huge change compared to the first season, which saw the duo create chaos in their adventures all across New York City. What's even more interesting is that it suggests Clint will play a role, which would mean he'd have to come out of retirement (again!).
Remember, the closing moments of the finale saw Clint and Kate discussing potential codenames for the latter as she began her new superhero era and it was heavily implied that she would be taking over the mantle as the next Hawkeye. After all, Clint was bearing the wounds of a long war after saving the world so many times, so it seems that his days in the field are behind him.
Kate Bishop is a great character and the MCU has only just begun scratching the surface of what it could accomplish with her, so a potential Hawkeye season 2 would likely give her that long-awaited spotlight. It would also perhaps focus on her as she dealt with the fallout of her mother’s arrest, her family’s history, Clint’s retirement, and maybe even start building towards a Young Avengers project.
Jeremy Renner would return as Hawkeye “in a heartbeat”
Jeremy Renner has been playing Clint Barton in the MCU for over a decade, making his first appearance as the archer in 2011’s Thor. He went on to reprise that role in three Avengers movies, Captain America: Civil War , and What If…? before finally getting his long-awaited leading role in Disney Plus’ Hawkeye series.
While that role was seemingly a swan song for the hero as an active Avenger, Renner would be open to returning to the role again. Speaking at the Phoenix Fan Fusion convention in summer 2023, he revealed that if Marvel wanted him to come back as Clint, he would do it “in a heartbeat”.
The actor is recovering from a serious injury he suffered earlier this year, in which he was hit by a snowplow at his home. He has made incredible progress since then and fans have been wishing him well throughout the year.
If he were to return (either in a second season of the Disney Plus show or a separate project), it would likely be in a supporting role as a mentor to Kate or the Avengers given that Hawkeye has seemingly retired, but it goes without saying that we would love to see him back in his most iconic role.
Hawkeye is the only MCU show so far to get a spinoff
While the future of Hawkeye itself remains unclear, one of the narrative threads that began in the series was explored further in spinoff series Echo. As the title probably already gives away, the series featured Alaqua Cox in the lead role, who reprises her role as Maya Lopez (a.k.a. Echo), and it premiered on both Disney Plus and Hulu on January 10, 2024, with all five episodes landing at once.
Vincent D’Onofrio reprised his role as Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, too as the show continued the struggle between him and Maya. When we last saw these two, Maya seemingly shot Fisk, but as the show reveals, he is still alive (albeit with a patched-up eye).
Echo was the first Marvel Studios project to receive a TV-MA rating, launching a new chapter of more mature MCU stories, setting the stage for Daredevil: Born Again, with Charlie Cox returning to the role of Matt Murdock. a.k.a. Daredevil, reuniting with D’Onofrio’s Kingpin for the first time since Netflix’s Daredevil series came to an end. Who would have thought that Hawkeye would set all of that in motion, but that's just one of the many ways that the show ultimately end up surprising us!
Its stories also continue in various other MCU projects, as Kate Bishop returned in the post-credits scene of The Marvels when Kamala Khan recruited her to start their own team, perhaps setting the stage for that long-rumored Young Avengers project. Meanwhile, Thunderbolts* will catch us up with Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova after she has come to terms with the death of her sister Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow).
That’s everything we know about the potential second season of Hawkeye right now. Stay tuned for more updates and news about the future of the show and its characters!