How Old Are Hawkeye’s Children (Post-Endgame Plot Hole?)

This article contains spoilers for Hawkeye episodes 1 & 2.

Clint Barton’s family life comes under the spotlight in Hawkeye, but the apparent ages of his children have become something of a problem, as Marvel chose to keep the same actors from Avengers: Endgame. As revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron when Clint took the rest of the Avengers to his secret safe house in order to escape the titular villain, Hawkeye is the only member of the Avengers who’s really something of a family man. Nick Fury kept Hawkeye’s wife and family secret even within SHIELD, with only his closest friend Black Widow in the know.

There’s a simple reason why superhero films and TV shows don’t use child actors especially often—children age, and their physical growth serves as a marker of passing time. That’s a particularly significant problem in the MCU, where the passage of time has been an important part of the narrative. Avengers: Endgame faced this problem with a 5-year time jump that saw Abby Ryder Fortson’s Cassie Lang recast in favor of the older Emma Fuhrmann. Kathryn Newton will become the third actor to play Cassie in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania. Marvel’s Eternals faced an even greater problem, featuring Lia McHugh as an immortal trapped in the body of a child, making it almost impossible for her character to return. Marvel dodged that bullet by changing Sprite’s powers, allowing for a potential return of the character even as her actor ages.

The Hawkeye Disney+ TV series falls foul of this problem in a different way, simply because Marvel chose to keep the same actors in place from Avengers: Endgame, which saw all of Barton’s children “snapped” away by Thanos. Ava Russo plays his daughter Lila, Ben Sakamota plays older brother Cooper, while the youngest of the Barton siblings, Nathaniel, is played by Cade Woodward. Hawkeye seems to be set around Christmas 2024, over a year and a half after Avengers: Endgame, but the children all look a little too old. The problem is especially pronounced for Nathaniel, who—according to Avengers: Age of Ultron—was born in 2015.

All the Barton children were erased from existence when Thanos snapped his fingers in the closing moments of Avengers: Infinity War, returning when the Avengers reversed this in 2023. That means Nathaniel should really be about four years old in the new Hawkeye series, but he’s now played by a 10-year-old actor. However hard Marvel tried, they really couldn’t make Cade Woodward look four. There is no concrete information on Ben Sakamoto and Ava Russo’s exact ages, but they at least appear closer to their ambiguously-aged teenage counterparts in the series, if not slightly older than they should be in the MCU’s timeline.

Marvel was faced with a difficult choice: either recast the child actors, or accept they wouldn’t look quite right, hoping that audiences wouldn’t pay too close attention to the childrens’ timeline. As noted, it’s a problem they’ve faced before in the case of Cassie Lang, but this time they decided not to do the recast. They made the right decision, because the young actors are excellent and have a great dynamic with their on-screen father Jeremy Renner. What’s more, the decision not to recast helps to reinforce the sense of continuity, as Hawkeye spins out of the events of Avengers: Endgame.

The Barton children only played a background role in the Hawkeye Disney+ show’s first two episodes, but may return over the course of the remaining four episodes. It would be particularly interesting to see them interact with their father’s impromptu ally Kate Bishop, while Kate would no doubt be shaken to experience a very different family life—one characterized by love and warmth. Hawkeye would really feel incomplete without Kate Bishop being welcomed into the Barton household.

Hawkeye airs every Wednesday on Disney+.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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