The bow-and-arrow-wielding Avenger has been invisible in all the promotion for Marvel’s epic superhero team-up — he has not shown up in any trailers or posters, and the name of the actor who has played him in four previous movies, Jeremy Renner, isn’t even listed in the credits on the posters, stand-up displays and assorted other pieces of promotional art. Infinity War and Avengers 4 screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who also wrote Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier) acknowledged as much when we spoke with them. McFeely told us that Hawkeye’s mysterious absence is part of the process through which the writers managed to juggle dozens of characters over the course of two films. “My assumption is that there will be some people who go, ‘Oh, my favorite character only got a little bit of screen time in the first movie,’” McFeely continued. “Odds are, they’ll have a lot more in the second one. And that was what was best for their story.” Asked if that is the case for Hawkeye — that he’s a bigger part of Avengers 4 than Infinity War — McFeely simply said, “Yes.” The full schedule of upcoming Marvel movies can be found here.
