Entertainment
Hawkeye episode 1: Fans sobbing over ‘heartbreaking’ nod to Black Widow after Avengers Endgame death
Black Widow’s death was gutting for fans (Picture: Jay Maidment/Marvel/Walt Disney/Kobal/Rex)
Warning: spoilers ahead for Hawkeye episodes 1 and 2.
Marvel fans were left sobbing during one of the opening scenes of new show Hawkeye on Disney Plus, when it made a ‘heartbreaking’ nod to Black Widow after her death in Avengers: Endgame.
Starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as the archer’s new protégé Kate Bishop, Hawkeye picks up two years after the events of Endgame.
One of the most emotional and heart-wrenching parts of the film came when Clint and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) embarked on a mission to retrieve the Soul Stone together, only for Nat to sacrifice her life for her best friend.
In episode one of Hawkeye, Clint is attending the razzle dazzle production of Rogers: The Musical on Broadway with his children, which features theatrical, all-singing, all-dancing versions of the Avengers on stage.
The musical seems highly comical at first, until the actor playing Black Widow performs her solo, performing pirouettes and kicks as Clint watches her, clearly grief-stricken.
Nat and Clint go back a long way (Picture: Marvel/Disney/Kobal/REX)
The music drowns out as Clint stares fixedly at her, before his daughter asks if he’s turned his hearing aid off.
He also spots a young girl in the audience who’s dressed like his old friend, who beams and waves at him as he smiles back.
Hawkeye viewers were overwhelmed with emotion over the references to Black Widow’s death in the series, including Clint’s daughter describing her as his ‘best friend’ and his wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) referring to one of Nat’s ‘old moves’.
‘I’ll cry every time when they’ll mention Nat,’ one person said.
‘Everytime Nat was brought up my heart broke a bit more,’ someone else remarked.
Another viewer explained the ‘many layers’ that Hawkeye features from Clint’s point of view, which demonstrate ‘how grounded and subtle he is’.
‘The musical, the writing on the urinal stall “Thanos was right” and mentioning Nat, it was a heartbreaking two first episodes but an amazing start,’ they added.
Considering Florence Pugh is set to reprise her role of Yelena Belova from Black Widow, this definitely won’t be the last that we hear about the late spy in the six-episode series.
Clint first crosses paths with Kate after spotting her on the news wearing his old Ronin suit, when he took on the persona of the assassin following the Blip.
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They end up teaming up against a group called the Tracksuit Mafia, who are seemingly being led by Maya Lopez, otherwise known as Echo (Alaqua Cox).
Echo, who is Deaf and has the ability to copy other people’s movements, has her own Disney Plus series coming up, so it’ll be intriguing to see how she interacts with Clint and Kate.
Hawkeye is available to watch on Disney Plus with new episodes released on Wednesdays.
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