This past week Marvel fans received the first two episodes of Disney+’s Hawkeye, the latest series in the televised Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second half-hour, entitled “Hide and Seek,” saw the now-retired Avenger, Clint Barton, mingle with some imaginary heroes. Series director Rhys Thomas (Staten Island Summer, Documentary Now!) told The Warp just how Jeremy Renner’s (Wind River, Mayor of Kingstown) character was forced into such a non-marvelous situation.
“Jeremy had spoken of his relationship with the fans,” Thomas said to The Wrap. “And he’s seen how passionately people treat these things. So the idea of acknowledging that was actually something that sort of came from Jeremy,” Thomas said. The series finds Renner’s Clint stuck in a hard predicament when his number one fan, Hailee Stanfield’s (Dickinson, Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse) Kate Bishop, interrupts his family Christmas trip when she stumbles upon his old Ronin suit. Mixing in a murder mystery with the former mercenary as the prime suspect, the two reluctantly team up to vanquish whatever harm is coming their way.
In the episode, Clint deduces that the majority of Kate’s problems will subside once they have the Ronin suit back in their possession. But what was supposed to be a mere sneak-and-grab mission turns into a more complicated ordeal when Clint discovers the suit was nabbed by a local firefighter who participates in LARPing or live-action role-playing. In order to get the suit back, Clint has to be a full participant in a LARP game happening in Central Park.
“It was also another aspect of like, what’s a really sort of a less expected way, and also kind of a weirdly low stakes way for Clint to have to go and pursue this suit.,” Thomas detailed with The Wrap. “I think that’s what’s fun about Kevin [Feige] and the team is that they’re just always interested in kind of taking these left turns and figuring out sort of different routes to these things. So yeah, it was kind of a silly thing.” Thomas said.
Thomas also detailed how they were able to utilize actual LARPers in the scene for accuracy. He told The Wrap his assistant was somewhat of a consultant to make sure that part was authentic.
Catch new episodes of Hawkeye every Wednesday only on Disney+.