Where Is Spider-Man in ‘Hawkeye’? The Show Takes Place in New York City, but Peter Park Isn’t Working With Kate Bishop
There are only a handful of months left in 2021, yet there are still three big Marvel projects coming out before the year ends. The Eternals and Hawkeye both premiere in November, plus Spider-Man: No Way Home comes out in December.
Thanks to the new trailer for Hawkeye, fans know that two of these take place in the same city (at least at certain points). But does that mean Spider-Man and Kate Bishop will meet so early in her MCU career? Odds are unlikely, but where is he while they’re on his home turf?
The ‘Hawkeye’ trailer showed Clint Barton and Kate Bishop’s time in New York City during the holidays
As stated above, the trailer for Hawkeye dropped on Sept. 13 and it was the first time fans got to see Clint Barton since Avengers: Endgame and the first time they got to see Hailee Steinfeld step into the role of Kate Bishop.
It set things up quite nicely for the Nov. 24 release date, with a holiday song playing over the high-action chases and fights in the teaser. But it’s important to note, and easy to see, that the show takes place in New York City and not on the Barton farm. So where’s the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?
It’s no secret that some fans would be ecstatic to see Peter Parker show up in any format. And with Kate one of the younger additions to the MCU, she’d fit in with Spidey.
“[Kate is] a 22-year-old kid and she’s a big Hawkeye fan,” Renner revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in July. “She has a wonderfully annoying and equally charming manner about her, because she’s such a fangirl of Hawkeye. The relationship grows from that, but the biggest problem for Clint is Kate Bishop and the onslaught of problems that she brings into his life.”
The last time fans saw Peter, he was still in high school, so while he’s still the youngest Avenger and younger than Kate, he’s not too far behind her in age.
If they’re in New York City, where’s Spider-Man?
So it feels a bit odd to have a Marvel story in a current-day NYC without Spider-Man. And with Kate Bishop dressing up as Clint’s former alias Ronin, why isn’t Spider-Man stepping in with this new vigilante?
Well, outside of production reasons, Peter probably thinks it’s just Hawkeye again. And it’s also important to note that the Hawkeye series seems to be set between WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. That means that Peter Parker is only a few months out from the loss of Tony Stark and returning back from the Blip. It’s also before Spider-Man: Far From Home, meaning his identity is still safe. He might try to keep a low profile at school, or at home in Queens, and not see it important to step in with a vigilante who is fighting bad guys.
But one Reddit post from August noted some interesting similarities between the new Disney+ series and the upcoming Spider-Man movie.
“No Way Home & Hawkeye seem to be taking place at Christmas…” the user wrote. “Hopefully we get some name drops of the events happening in NWH during Hawkeye. Hopefully down the line, We get a Peter Parker & Kate Bishop friendship/team up.”
No one can argue with that last sentence. However, with Spider-Man: No Way Home happening a year or so after Hawkeye (presumably), the Christmas coincidence is probably just that. Although, with Dr. Strange’s spell and reversing whatever he had to so everyone forgot Peter Parker was Spider-Man, who knows.
A lot of fans like the fact that Clint Barton is getting his own series
Regardless, no Peter Parker or Spider-Man in Hawkeye is fine for a lot of die-hard Clint Barton fans. A lot of them are excited to see a solo project for the hero, and the more time spent on Clint and Kate Bishop and their growing bond and mentoring, the better.
One user commented in another post on Reddit that they “love how grounded and lowkey” Hawkeye is in comparison to other shows or movies.
“Not everything needs to have world-ending stakes, and Hawkeye seems like a breath of fresh air in that regard,” they wrote. Although, it’s safe to say that being chased after by a mob of angry gang members seems like high enough stakes. But the no-magic element does ground it a bit after all the time-hopping that happened in Loki. Both worked for their respective characters. The bomb-arrow to a van seems like a good tone to set for the show and makes it seem like a lighter Black Widow adjacent series.
