Spoiler warning: this post kind of assumes you’re up to date with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly Ant-Man & The Wasp.
Look, Hawkeye isn’t everyone’s favourite MCU character. He’s surly, not as funny as he is in the comics, and whenever he’s out there cosplaying Katniss Everdeen next to literal gods and monsters, there’s always been an element of “…him?”
Lest we forget the one time mcu Hawkeye was accurate to book Hawkeye pic.twitter.com/dIApuzP43M
— Rotisserie Shithead?️???? (@c_raham) December 8, 2018
So not that many people minded his total absence from Infinity War, which was explained away with a single line: like Scott “Ant-Man” Lang, the only other Avenger who’s a parent, Clint Barton took a post-Civil War plea deal that allowed him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
Then he turns up in the Avengers: Endgame trailer looking like a goth Green Arrow:
Now, why would such a devoted family man suddenly go all sword-guy when he spent all of the fight against Thanos, a threat to literally the entire universe, perfecting his pancake-flipping technique and reconnecting with his beautiful wife Lindsay Weir From Freaks & Geeks?
Me before #InfinityWar: who cares where Hawkeye is?
Me after the #AvengersEndgame trailer: what happened to you my precious boy?!! pic.twitter.com/LpoxM5IrU0— Amy Ratcliffe (@amy_geek) December 7, 2018
Because his family is dead. They all got Snapped. Sorry.
Imagine retiring from fighting robots and aliens with a bow and arrow
You at home binge watching Game of Thrones with you wife and daughters
And all 3 or 4 of them fade into dust…
Hawkeye is gonna go full John Wick in this hoe #AvengersEndgame pic.twitter.com/aObyv6lmfn
— Manuel (@Dope_Fro) December 7, 2018
As we learned from the end of Ant-Man, “50% of all living things” doesn’t mean “50% of the people in any given group” – an entire family could all happen to be in the dusted half.
In the comics, after his traumatic Civil War experience (no spoilers, but yeah, it’s bad), Clint Barton takes on a persona called Ronin (not to be confused with Ronan The Accuser, the Kree baddie played by Lee Pace in the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies and the upcoming Captain Marvel).
When it dawns on you probably why Hawkeye is now Ronin pic.twitter.com/8vcYERq5AH
— Logan Trent (@TheLoganTrent) December 7, 2018
A ronin is a samurai who serves no master – the whole vibe is very “brooding, lethal loner”.
Also, there’s a pretty telling cut in the trailer:
WHEN STEVE SAYS, “we lost family,” IT CUTS TO RONIN. HIS FAMILY. DIED. HIS WIFE AND HIS SON AND HIS DAUGHTER AND HIS NEW BABY BOY DUSTED AWAY. DONT TALK TO ME pic.twitter.com/MKFl1Vxjyv
— abbi (@mcucevans) December 8, 2018
So yeah. Tony’s message to Pepper isn’t even the most devastating part of the trailer – even Hawkeye’s gonna make you cry in this one.