How Hawkeye Is Secretly The Villain In Avengers: Endgame
There’s been some speculation as to whether or not Thanos will be the primary villain in Avengers: Endgame. Some people suspect that he could be overshadowed by some other big bad who may or may not force Thanos to work with the Avengers in an attempt to defeat them. It doesn’t sound very likely but--hey, it’s fun to theorize.
One theory suggests that the big bad to reveal themselves won’t be someone of a grand nature such as Galactus or something, but somebody more covery--more discrete. As the title has given away, this person is thought to be Hawkeye, or more accurately, Ronin.
Hawkeye’s Transformation
Yes--Hawkeye is back. This og Avenger has been missing in action since his appearance in Captain America: Civil War where he helped Cap break a bunch of laws and was then subsequential broken out of an island prison by Cap at the end. Officially a fugitive, Hawkeye obviously slunk back into his retirement at his remote safehouse with his wife and kids. Oddly enough, despite helping Cap in his goal in Civil War, Hawkeye decided to stay out the near- apocalyptic and grand event that was Infinity War, even despite everyone else under the sun taking place in it (but more on that later). But, like we said, before Hawkeye is back, confirmed by the first official trailer for the Endgame movie. But something was explicitly different about him.
Hawkeye is not only back, but he’s presumably taken up a new mantle in the form of Ronin, a much darker persona in comparison to what he usual is. In the comics, Hawkeye becomes Ronin when the hero ends up dying twice due to actions taken by the Scarlet Witch. he first time when his quiver caught fire, and the second time when Scarlet Witch wiped him out personally. When he’s revived after the fact he ends up taking the Ronin mantle from someone named Echo. Like we saw in the trailer, Ronin forgoes the traditional bow that Hawkeye is known for and prefers to use sharpened steel in order to get his point across. The result tends to be a lot of dead people.
The thing is: Hawkeye was retired. He was happy. As far as we the audience know, he was in no real danger after returning to his family, so why exactly is he back killing people out in the east? We don’t know exactly what happened of course, but for Clint to be running around as Ronin instead of enjoying his family in some remote part of the world, something dramatic must have happened. The prevailing theory is that his family suffered the same fate half of the rest of the universe suffered: Thanos’s snap. This would be an easy way to get him wrapped up in the whole situation involving Thanos.
But the situation we found Hawkeye in in the trailer should be considered as well. Hawkeye looked to be out in the east, and while he may be feeling some type of way, he wouldn't just be out and about traveling halfway across the world killing random people. There would be some type of purpose to it. So maybe Hawkeye’s family wasn’t killed by the snap, but by some other outside element, and he’s a mission to destroy whoever it was. In the comics, Hawkeye’s Ronin transformation was tied to a mission he had involving the Hand, so maybe the bodies he was surrounded by in Endgame belong to it. Could Endgame be the Hand’s first big screen appearance for the MCU. It’s both likely and not considering Netflix has officially canceled every Marvel TV show they had. The filmmakers have stated that Hawkeye will undergo his own journey in Avengers: Endgame, so the idea that someone other than Thanos hurting him, isn’t completely out of the question.
Either way, if Clint’s family was truly killed, regardless of how it happened, that would be more than enough of a reason for Hawkeye to don his Ronin armor and go on a killing spree.
As it stands now, Hawkeye’s road is diverged. He has two different path ahead of him that he can go down: fighting against Thanos, or fighting against some currently unknown other entity. For this theory we’re going to use Thanos since he’s more closely tied to the events surrounding all of the heroes at the moment. That means, that Hawkeye’s goal becomes bringing his family back from the brink or killing Thanos by any means necessary. This isn’t to say he’s going to purposefully sabotage the Avengers, but he will do what he needs to make sure that he brings his wife and kids back to the world of the living.
Return of Past Villain
The Endgame teaser that aired as a big game tv spot during the super bowl showed off Hawkeye in a very peculiar situation. He was looking up at the source of a red light that had washed over his whole body. This could be nothing, just a scene trailer for the trailer itself, but there’s one character in the Marvel universe who’s infamous for giving off a very vivid red light whenever he’s around. This guy’s — or more accurately “A.I.’s”— name is Ultron.
Vision seemingly eradicated the last of Ultron at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but there are some loopholes to get around that. Vision may have locked Ultron out of the internet, but considering he’s a hyper advanced A.I., he doesn’t really need to rely solely on the internet to reintegrate himself back into the land of the living. If Ultron really wanted too, he could have left a copy of himself in an undisclosed area just in case his plan in Sokovia went awry. He had enough time before engaging the Avengers to do something like this and it honestly wouldn’t really be out of character for him. In fact, a lot of fans wondered when Age of Ultron came out, why Ultron didn’t think do something like this.
But if it does turn out that it is Ultron in this trailer then we have our answer. He really did decide to back himself up store the said backup in another body. Why he’s chosen to remain inactive would still be a mystery. This theory, either way, will rely on the idea that Hawkeye really did run into Ultron in the big spot teaser. This has probably crossed your mind already but Hawkeye by himself isn’t a much a threat to anyone with powers or superpower-like skill sets. He’s also not going to just flat out betray the Avengers because that would go completely against his character, but an indirect unconscious assault through Ultron wouldn't necessarily be.
Hawkeye Unleashes Ultron
The idea is that Ultron really did leave a backup of himself somewhere in the world just in case the Avengers did manage to get the upper hand. They did manage to steal his perfect body from him, so they had already proven that they could be a problem. Still, Ultron, being the confident piece of machinery that he is, didn’t really think it would come to him having to rely on a backup of himself. Therefore he didn’t create a way for himself to resurface on his own in case he was -- let’s say, locked out of the internet by his dream body. So when he was defeated in Age of Ultron, his backup never kicked in and came online because Ultron had no way to access it. This would be one explanation as to why he’s inactive after the events in Sokovia. He could also, of course, just be trying to build a new body in secret, but for the purposes of this theory we’ll be going with the idea that he’s just dormant.
We can treat Hawkeye traveling all the way out to the east as him searching for something. Even if he just so happens to still be in the states, his home is in the middle of nowhere so idea still applies. Of course, he’s not specifically looking for Ultron since, you know, no one should conceivably have any idea that Ultron is still alive (aside from Vision). But Hawkeye’s journey would lead him to Ultron’s doorstep in this scenario. When Hawkeye stumbles onto Ultron’s doorstep, he accidentally activates him, triggering the scene the big spot trailer shows off. Ultron recognizes Clint and realizes that he most likely failed to destroy Sokovia.
At this point, Hawkeye would definitely be doing what he needs to try and contact the Avengers. But, not wanting to be bothered, though, Ultron would just cut the communication before Hawkeye ever gets a chance to ever get it started. Not really having much else of a choice in his mind, Hawkeye would try to destroy Ultron’s weaker body. But Ultron is still Ultron, so Hawkeye’s plan doesn’t work out the way he would like it to. He may destroy the bot, but Ultron would just move onto something new. Wanting to know exactly how long its been since Sokovia, Ultron would then use the internet to catch himself up on the four years that he missed out on. He would then end up pretty confused as to why half of the world suddenly vanished a year prior though.
Not really having much to lose at this point, Hawkeye would tell Ultron about Thanos. Ultron would catch onto the fact that Clint lost his family to him in the event and his plan would unfold from there. If the Mind Stone was taken from Vision, then that means his synthetic body is up for grabs. All he would have to do is convince Hawkeye to let him help track down Thanos. Clearly, the Avengers were no help in stopping half the world from fading and this is the exact thing that he was programmed to fight off in the first place. With both Vision and Tony gone, there’s no real way for Hawkeye or any of his allies to fully destroy Ultron, and without a powerful body there’s no real way he can destroy all of them, so as it stands there’s no real reason for them to be fighting because neither side would win.
Ultron ultimately proposes that Hawkeye let him pass. Not really having much of a choice, Hawkeye releases Ultron into the world. Obviously, Ultron’s not going to be too concerned with protecting the world or its inhabitants. He’s going to go after Vision’s body, wherever it may be after the hero was killed by Thanos. Ultron would more than likely know where to go since he reviewed the world’s information when Hawkeye brought him back to life. If the body still happens to be in Wakanda, then the Vision would go there. The country, as far as we know, doesn’t have a king, and the main innovator of their technology is apparently missing in action. Under these conditions, swiping Vision’s body wouldn’t necessarily be the hardest thing for Ultron. Especially if he did covertly and then used Shuri’s unoccupied lab to fix and repair the synthetic body.
With Vision’s body in his possession, Ultron would be a real threat to contend with. He wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as he would with the Mind Stone in his possession, but Ultron’s nearly destroyed the world without it before and that was with a weaker vessel.
In the end, Ronin will have, albeit accidently, released Ultron into the world. But not really believing Ultron can cause any more real damage than the world has already suffered he doesn’t much reason to make it his main priority. Especially when he’s more focused on killing Thanos and bringing back his lost family and the rest of the world. Overall, Thanos is the bigger threat on his radar, and the one he has a personal bone to pick. It’s a similar situation to how Quill sabotaged the Avengers by knocking around Thanos when they had him restrained.
