Where The Heck is Hawkeye : 9 Conspiracy Theories
Did Clint leave a Hint?
[Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and also Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer]
Have you seen Avengers: Infinity War? Oh, you have? 15 times, you say?
It’s an incredibly ambitious movie that changes the superhero genre yet again, but, unlike the other Marvel pics, it leaves the audience with many burning questions.
But the question that will haunt audiences the most is this:
Where was Hawkeye?
Every other character in this poster not only appears in the film, but has a pretty significant role in the events of the film.
Now before we get started, let’s get those silly excuses out of the way. The following are reasons given by the Infinity War creators for Hawkeye not being involved:
“We like Hawkeye. We like Hawkeye so much we gave him a really good story.” — Screenwriter Christopher Markus
Oh yeah?
“There is a very specific story choice why… “— Director Anthony Russo
“We have a really interesting story cooked up…and part of that story required that they be under house arrest.” — Director Joe Russo
Stalling!
“No.” — Screenwriter Stephen McFeely, on whether he was ever going to be in the film.
Suspicious.
And, of course, if you take the Avengers at their word, Clint is, in fact, spending the course of the film under house arrest.
Psh. What superhero stays at home when the world is at stake? If we are to believe the poster (and I refuse to believe Marvel has taken part in false advertising) we are left with the only feasible option — Hawkeye is in the movie.
All we need to figure out…is where! 3 straight weeks with no sleep and 42 Mango-flavored Diet Cokes later, here are my 9 theories:
- Hawkeye was in the film, only he was the size of an ant.
Many people believe that Ant-Man was in Avengers: Infinity War, but simply too small to see. Perhaps Scott Lang was inspired to help his buddy escape from his home the only way he knew how — by shrinking stuff! It’s very likely that the pair was running around screaming warnings at their fellow teammates, but the Avengers, making a LOT of noise, were unable to hear them.
2. Hawkeye “Freaky Friday”ed with the Hulk.
In a universe of talking trees and magical surgeons, a body swap doesn’t really seem that far-fetched. After all, you know who else switched powers?
Yes! Captain America and Vic Mackey!
This would explain Bruce’s difficulties turning into the Hulk — he now has Hawkeye’s powers!
In a deleted scene from Captain America: Civil War, it’s possible that Clint and Bruce went to a Chinese (shawarma?) restaurant and got in an argument. You know what happens next. A few weeks later, they realize that their powers have switched! Laura, Hawkeye’s wife, is in for a big surprise…
Now, of course we don’t see Hulked-out Clint, but do we see Hawkeye’s Bruce? Maybe! Bruce Banner manages to fall from space and land directly in Dr.Strange’s man cave! Bullseye! That’s pretty darn accurate.
3. Hawkeye is Tony Stark’s and Pepper Potts’ child who has travelled back to our present from the future.
We don’t know for sure if Pepper’s pregnant, but of course she is — why else would they show Tony mentioning that he had a dream about it? It will be a key plot point in Avengers 4 when we learn that Clint Barton is the couple’s son.
Set photos from Avengers 4 imply that there may be some time travel involved and Hawkeye is supposed to have an “important role”, so it’s likely he brings the Terminator factor to the Avengers universe.
The last three letters in Hawkeye’s last name are the first three letters of Iron Man’s. Coincidence? His grandfather would be Howard, which has two of the three consonant sounds of “Hawkeye”. Both Clint and Tony are Caucasian and have a love for sunglasses, weapons and dry humor, so there’s a definite possibility that he is, in fact, Stark’s offspring.
4. Hawkeye is the legs of the Hulkbuster armor.
Much like the oft-mocked two-person horse costume, the Hulkbuster armor probably takes more than one person to run (if you’re not Tony Stark, billionaire tech genius). Still hiding from the government, Hawkeye decides to lay low in the bottom half of the Hulkbuster armor, providing leg support for when Bruce steps in. Whether he survives at the end of the film is anyone’s guess — he never comes out.
We can only hope that he’s okay and just stuck inside!
5. Hawkeye was the big bad all along…and hired Thanos.
“Everyone answers to someone.” In this theory, Marvel’s biggest twist to date involves the beloved Hawkeye being revealed not only as a traitor — he’s Thanos’ boss, making him responsible for every bad thing that’s happened! Being mind-wiped in Avengers 1? An act. House arrest? A clever excuse to avoid having to be put in an awkward situation of fighting his underling. After all, do we ever see him fight Thanos? No, no we don’t.
So how did this partnership come about? Well, obviously Hawkeye wants to reset the Earth. Maybe he’s tired of having the limelight taken away by the more popular Avengers. Maybe his kids are being bullied at school. Or maybe he’s just pure evil.
And guess which two Marvel characters are mostly purple? That’s right. Purple is the color of villainy in comics. Galactus. Magneto. Green Goblin. Mysterio. Kang. And that’s just the Marvel ones. They’re present in DC comics as well, and just about every Disney villain wears it.
Of course, he’s not in this film, but he’s probably in a cut post-credits sequence, sitting in a chair saying, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
6. Infinity War is Hawkeye’s dream.
The story of Infinity War is really unbelievable if you think about it. Iron Man in space. Hulk not being able to use his powers. Talking trees and raccoons. The Spider-Man and Black Panther franchises seemingly going up in smoke. It’s very likely that Hawkeye, already traumatized from the events of Civil War, ate a sandwich (he’s been shown to enjoy Mediterranean pita-based meals) before bed and is now just having terrible nightmares as a result, where the worst possible scenarios happen to each of his friends. This would explain the bizarre and unexpected deaths in the film.
But would this mean every film until Avengers 4 (when he wakes up) is also a dream?
7. Clint Barton is not in the film…but the directors found a loophole by including a “hawk eye”.
There are certainly birds in the film, and certainly some of those are hawks, and certainly those hawks have at least one eye.
Sneaky one, Russos.
8. Hawkeye was in the film, but Loki has brainwashed us to remember otherwise.
This theory requires one to suspend their disbelief quite a bit more than usual, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Hawkeye did play a big role in Infinity War…we just don’t remember it because we’ve been brainwashed by the God of Mischief.
“But didn’t Loki die?” you ask. It certainly looked that way, but that’s exactly what he would want us to think. He pretty much fakes his death in every Avengers film he’s in! If you see a character die, you automatically assume they cannot be responsible for further events in the film. Loki could very well be responsible from erasing Hawkeye from our memories. He just overlooked the poster…his big mistake.
Mind stone or not, we’ve seen Loki control minds before. In fact, how do we know that anything that happened in any of the movies actually happened? Or anything in our life…..????
9. Hawkeye got to the reality stone first, and created a fake reality stone for Thanos. Therefore, everything in the movie is an illusion created by Hawkeye!
That’s right. Hawkeye Inception’d Thanos by getting the reality stone first and fooling the Mad Titan into believing he was succeeding in his quest.
In reality, Hawkeye the Avengers are all watching Thanos run around aimlessly while they enjoy popcorn and shawarma.
Which of these Hawkeye theories do you think is the most likely? We can safely assume that at least one of them is correct.
Any ideas that haven’t been explored?
And also, what’s the deal with the pig from Moana?
