Hawkeye Complete MCU Timeline: Clint Barton’s Story Explained

Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton has been a key character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and here’s a complete timeline of Hawkeye‘s story. As one of the original members of the Avengers, Hawkeye’s importance to the MCU has long been slightly smaller than his teammates. Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor all received a trilogy of movies that were integral chapters in the Infinity Saga. Hulk and Black Widow each received solo movies of their own, although at very different stages of Marvel Studios’ shared universe. Marvel’s sharpshooter has unquestionably taken a back seat to the other Avengers in that regard, which has meant much of his individual story hasn’t been thoroughly explored.

Marvel Studios finally decided to change Clint Barton’s MCU fortune by giving him a Disney+ show. Hawkeye‘s development came as part of Marvel’s plans to expand their content to Disney’s streaming service and highlight characters who otherwise haven’t received major movie roles. It’s in Hawkeye that viewers will get the first chance to see Clint’s normal life in more than fleeting glimpses. This will also be an opportunity to show what a Hawkeye-level MCU threat is like and introduce Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) to the world. Hawkeye‘s story is confirmed to take place after Avengers: Endgame, which arguably gave Hawkeye one of his biggest roles to date.

As Clint Barton’s MCU story continues to grow, let’s take a look back at everything Marvel Studios has revealed about Hawkeye’s life to this point. This will include details from all five of his MCU movie appearances, ranging from Thor to Avengers: Endgame, and cover everything from his childhood to his role in reversing Thanos’ snap.

The Origin of Hawkeye

The MCU hasn’t revealed many details about Clint Barton’s life prior to becoming a superhero. It was presumably during his younger days that Clint’s fascination with a bow and arrow began, though, leading to him training to harness this skill. This would be when his incredible marksmanship began to blossom. In the comics, these skills came after being trained by Jack Duquesne aka Swordsman, who Tony Dalton plays in Hawkeye. At the same time that Clint was becoming one of the world’s best archers, he also met and fell in love with Laura. The two of them are believed to have gotten married at this stage in Clint’s life, and before he was recruited to join SHIELD.

Even though Clint doesn’t have any superpowers, Nick Fury personally recruited him to join SHIELD, where Clint quickly became one of the spy organization’s best agents. This could’ve played a factor in Fury helping set up an off-books safehouse for Clint and Laura to start a family in Missouri. It was during these early days with SHIELD that Hawkeye proved his resourcefulness with his bow and arrows, but he also is skilled with guns and in hand-to-hand combat. As Hawkeye climbed through SHIELD’s ranks and gained more trust with Fury, Clint was sent to Budapest to track down the assassin known as Black Widow. This mission didn’t go as planned, though, as Clint recruited Natasha Romanoff to betray the Red Room and join SHIELD. Clint helped Natasha take down General Dreykov and the Red Room (or so they thought), which then allowed them to become SHIELD agents together and start their long-lasting friendship.

Hawkeye Makes MCU Debut in Thor

Hawkeye officially joined the MCU in 2011, as Jeremy Renner made his first appearance as Clint Barton in Thor. The solo film for the god of thunder only included Hawkeye for a small role that was meant to help introduce him ahead of The Avengers. Clint’s involvement in the story sees him sent to New Mexico by Nick Fury to help observe a mysterious object that has crashed outside the small town of Puente Antiguo. He was called into action by Phil Coulson, who was overseeing SHIELD’s observation station, after Thor began infiltrating the base. Clint was ready to fire away on the Asgardian prince to try and stop him, but Coulson ordered him to not shoot out of his own curiosity about Thor’s ability to pick up Mjolnir.

Even though Hawkeye’s arrows wouldn’t have had any impact on Thor, his appearance in the solo movie paved the way for what would come next. Clint’s distant encounter with Asgardians and the cosmic side of the MCU led Fury to use him as a guard of the Tesseract once SHIELD obtained it. This led Clint to set up shop at the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in Nevada as part of Project PEGASUS. He spent most of his time observing the Tesseract and those who interacted with it, like Dr. Erik Selvig, from up in his “nest.” Of course, this also put him in a position to play an integral role in The Avengers next.

Hawkeye Joins the Avengers

When the time came for Hawkeye to be part of the MCU’s original Avengers team, The Avengers gave the character an unexpected journey to get there. Since he was stationed as a guard of the Tesseract, Clint was there when Loki used the Infinity Stone to travel to SHIELD’s base. The god of mischief liked Barton’s bravery and decided to put the archer under his mind control as a result. This means Clint worked against SHIELD and the Avengers for most of The Avengers, as he even helped lead the attack on the Helicarrier. It was during this escapade that Black Widow knocked Hawkeye out, which allowed for Loki’s mind control to fade.

Once Clint was free of Loki’s mind control, Hawkeye took his rightful place as a member of the Avengers. He, Black Widow, and Captain America flew to New York to confront Loki, and they arrived just as his Chitauri army started to attack. Clint’s piloting skills were tested in this mission, as he managed to safely crash the Quinjet so he, Natasha, and Steve Rogers could get in on the fight. Despite just having his bow and a few trick arrows, Hawkeye proved to be quite resourceful during the Battle of New York. His actions solidified why he belonged on the original Avengers roster and proved why he had become such a valuable member of SHIELD in the past.

Sokovia, Ultron & Hawkeye’s Retirement

Following his first adventure with the Avengers, the MCU hasn’t revealed much about Hawkeye’s life before the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. These few years would be when he and Laura continued to grow their family and have a few of their children, but Clint was otherwise still working for SHIELD before its collapse in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Hawkeye appeared to spend part of his time following SHIELD’s downfall working with the Avengers to take down what remained of Hydra. This included hunting down Baron von Strucker, which led to Clint getting shot by a Hydra soldier.

During the main section of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Clint takes on a more prominent role as the MCU attempted to make amends for sideling him in the first film. This included introducing his family and allowing the other Avengers to meet them for the first time, with Natasha’s knowledge of them being the lone exception. After taking part in defeating Ultron, it was Hawkeye’s family that brought him to retire from active duty with the Avengers. This came at the perfect time as he and Laura welcomed Nathaniel Pietro Barton to the family.

Captain America: Civil War

Hawkeye’s retirement at Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s ending proved to be short-lived. Following the formation of the Sokovia Accords and Iron Man and Captain America taking different stances on it, Clint was drawn back into the superhero world. He is used by Steve Rogers to go break Scarlet Witch out of her unofficial Avengers HQ lockdown, which included trying to get the best of Vision. Once he and Wanda Maximoff escaped, they then helped get Ant-Man to Germany to participate in the airport fight of Captain America: Civil War.

It was due to Clint’s involvement in the Team Iron Man vs Team Captain America fight that he found himself in trouble. This act meant breaking the Sokovia Accords and landed him as a prisoner of The Raft under Thunderbolt Ross. However, Captain America and Black Widow came to rescue him and the other imprisoned Avengers. Once Clint was free, he agreed to a plea deal with the government to avoid further punishment. This meant being on house arrest for the next two years and sitting out the fight against Thanos’ invasion in Avengers: Infinity War. While this did mean Clint got to spend a lot more time with his family, this also led to him being present when they vanished from existence as part of Thanos’ snap.

Hawkeye as Ronin, Thanos’ End Game

Clint Barton watching his family disappear at the start of Avengers: Endgame sent him down a dark path. He lost his heroic ways and determined that it was unfair so many criminals survived the snap while his wife and kids didn’t. This led Clint to abandon the Hawkeye mantle and his traditional bow and arrow. He went on to spend the next five years wearing a black and gold costume, wielding a katana, taking on the name of Ronin, and traveling the world to kill various criminals. Clint’s actions weren’t lost on the Avengers, as Black Widow and War Machine followed his massacres and attempted to find him. This led to Black Widow eventually locating him in Japan and bringing him back to the Avengers with the chance to save his family.

Hawkeye then participated in Avengers: Endgame‘s Time Heist and is paired up with Black Widow as they travel the timeline to obtain the Infinity Stones in the past. This meant Hawkeye and Black Widow going to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone, although they were not privy to the information that it could only be acquired by trading a soul for a soul. Clint and Natasha fought about who should be the one to die, and even though he tried to be the one to give up his life to bring back his family, Black Widow ultimately died on Vormir. This allowed Hawkeye to survive and reunite with his wife and kids after Thanos’ defeat. They attended Tony Stark’s funeral together, with Clint knowing his family very well could’ve been at his funeral if the events played out differently. It was also Hawkeye‘s time as Ronin that put him on Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine’s radar, and him being blamed for Black Widow’s death is what puts Yelena Belova on his trail during Black Widow‘s post-credits scene.

About The Author

Cooper Hood
(5619 Articles Published)

Cooper Hood is a news and feature writer for Screen Rant. He joined Screen Rant in late 2016 following a year-long stint with MCU Exchange, which came after first developing an MCU blog of his own. He graduated college in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Public Communication, with a minor in Media Production. Cooper’s love for movies began by watching Toy Story and Lion King on repeat as a child, but it wasn’t until The Avengers that he took an invested interest in movies and the filmmaking process, leading him to discover the world of film journalism. Every year Cooper looks forward to seeing the latest blockbusters from the likes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, but also loves the rush to catch up on Oscar films near the end of the year. When he isn’t writing about or watching new releases, Cooper is a fantasy football obsessive and looking to expand his Blu-Ray collection – because physical media is still king! Follow Cooper on Twitter @MovieCooper.

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