Hawkeye Show’s Fight Scenes Were Fun & Challenging, Says Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner says that the fight scenes in the upcoming Hawkeye series were “fun” and “challenging” to shoot. The story of Hawkeye takes place in a post-Blip New York City after the events of Avengers: Endgame. The series is centered on Clint Barton/Hawkeye, who must team up with young archer Kate Bishop to confront his enemies from his time as Ronin, while he tries to get back to his family in time for Christmas. The show will consist of six episodes with the first two episodes scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on November 24th.

Renner returns to play the titular role of Barton and will be joined by Hailee Steinfeld (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Bumblebee) as Kate Bishop. The series will also focus on the master archer handing over the reins to his protege as she takes on the mantle of Hawkeye. The supporting cast includes Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian D’arcy James, and Alaqua Cox as Echo. Hawkeye will supposedly also bring back Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova following the post-credits scene in Black Widow, where she learns of Natasha’s death at the hands of Barton.

Related: Hawkeye Complete MCU Timeline: Clint Barton’s Story Explained

In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1, Renner opened up about his favorite aspects of playing Hawkeye and revealed how “challenging” it was for him with regards to filming some of the fight scenes and stunt work in the forthcoming series. He described his experience of making the action sequences as “really fun,” and praised some of the stunt choreography. He also gave special mention to some of the action-packed encounters between his character and Black Widow in past MCU films. Read what he had to say below:

“My takeaway – I love the action sequences. Those are some of the most fun for me. There are some really great fun ones in this. Some good wire-work, nice stunt stuff and good fight sequences, and fighting – even Black Widow, that was a long time ago. I love doing the stunts a lot in this. It was very challenging and it taught me a lot.”

Being an adept marksman, Hawkeye may be best known to excel in the use of ranged weapons, but his skill set is also comprised of hand-to-hand combat and proficiency with melee weapons. These physical qualities of the charismatic archer are perfectly captured by Renner’s commitment to the role and are on full display in MCU’s iteration of the character. It’s no surprise that Renner looked back on Hawkeye’s clashes with Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow as some of his most preferred sequences, with their close-combat confrontation on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier in The Avengers especially, proving to be one of the most exhilarating fights in the series.

The fan-favorite character finally getting his own TV series is a reward for Renner’s scene-stealing presence in past MCU films. While fans may sometimes find Hawkeye underutilized in the franchise as a character, he does get a chance to live up to his name from an action perspective. The trailers and promotional content for Hawkeye promise plenty more of the practical stunt work and close quarter tussles that the superhero is known for, and audiences will only have until next Wednesday to catch up to his latest Christmas-based adventure.

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Source: BBC Radio 1