It is said that the train started by Marvel Studios in 2008, a train known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise, can no longer afford to stop for even the shortest breaks. True, they tried to do that in the first year of pandemic last year; but it was financially disastrous to keep the start of their MCU Phase 4 on hold for as long as it has been. This is doubly so now that the franchise not only has films but streaming series on Disney+. Soon to follow the “What If…?” animated anthology is a series focusing on Avengers member Hawkeye, the first trailer for which has landed.

Entertainment Weekly tells us that Marvel Studios dropped a trailer late this Monday, September 13, for “Hawkeye,” the next upcoming MCU Disney+ limited series. The show stars Jeremy Renner reprising as master bow marksman Clint Barton, former SHIELD Agent and Avenger, and his newest misadventures following the events of “Endgame.” The series also delves deep into the character’s original Marvel Comics incarnation: particularly the fact that he got a young and female legacy character that uses his codename, and which they later share between them.

The trailer sees Barton (Renner) reminiscing of his “emo” days during the five-year period when he lost his family to the Thanos “Blip.” During that time he took the new identity of the sword-and-bow-wielding Ronin, waging a violent war against the remnants of organized crime worldwide. He has since dropped the act after “Endgame” restored his wife and children, but Clint made vicious enemies during his Ronin phase, and they are out to collect just when he was out of town and trying to get home to the folks during the Holidays. This is complicated when he sees another figure aping the Ronin motif, forcing him to pursue the copycat.

Said Ronin poseur turns out to be a girl, one Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). She’s a Hawkeye fan despite describing herself as a heck of an archer herself. But a hasty meeting leads to a frantic team-up as now Barton and Bishop must fend off some very determined assassins including Black Widow Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who blames Clint for Natasha Romanov’s death. As the two Hawkeyes try to survive until Barton makes it to his family’s Christmas dinner, intense action scenes are intercut with surprise elements like a “Hamilton”-like “Rogers: The Musical” on Broadway.

What that is about, we shall have to wait for the series. “Hawkeye” also stars Vera Farmiga, Tony Dalton, Alaqua Cox, and Brian D’Arcy James. It starts streaming on Disney+ November 24, succeeding “What If…?”

Image courtesy of Yahoo News