Is Hailee Steinfeld Dropping Hints That She's Playing Kate Bishop In Hawkeye?

Though Disney+ only launched in November 2019, the platform was in development long before that, and the House of Mouse thought well in advance about what it wanted to bring to its newest frontier. Taking advantage of its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and the Marvel Cinematic Universe that was built from the ground up, Disney planned a slate of Marvel television series to premiere exclusively on Disney+.

One of these upcoming Marvel shows is Hawkeye, which will focus on Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton from the MCU as he works alongside his new protégé Kate Bishop. For anyone unfamiliar with this fan-favorite character from the comics, Bishop is a member of the Young Avengers — first appearing in Young Avengers #1 in 2005 — who also goes by the name Hawkeye. She works and trains with Barton in the Hawkeye Vol. 4 comic series, which continues into All-New Hawkeye, before leading her own run with Hawkeye Vol 5, in which Bishop starts her own detective agency in Los Angeles called Hawkeye Investigations.

As far back as September 2019, rumors began swirling that Disney might have been eyeing singer-actress Hailee Steinfeld to play Kate Bishop, and a lot of fans frequently fan-cast her as the character in art and edits. Though she denied any involvement with Hawkeye during a May 2020 appearance on SiriusXM's Morning Mash Up, many now believe that Steinfeld is indeed playing Kate Bishop in the show, based on the actress' recent Instagram post.

What's really going on here? Let's break it all down.

In the late hours of November 30, 2020, Steinfeld shared to her Instagram a post that has led people to believe she's playing Kate Bishop. The picture is artwork by Instagram user @veryrealfantasy, whose astrology-centric artwork and digital creations have attracted an audience of over 817,000 followers, depicting a three-eyed woman who's astrological sign is, as the text on the photo reads, Sagittarius. 

While the picture doesn't seem connected to Hawkeye or Kate Bishop at all, fans are finding a deeper meaning in the details of the post as a whole. The woman's dark hair and purple headband look curiously like Bishop's iconic get-up, and Steinfeld's caption has many Marvelites freaking out. She accompanied the post with the message "see u in 11 days, 24," punctuating it with a bow and arrow emoji. To many people, Steinfeld's choice of emoji seems to reference Bishops bow and arrow weapon, making the post seem significant.

Along with that, a comment on Steinfeld's post has further fueled the rumors that Steinfeld is playing Kate Bishop in Hawkeye. Geek Vibes Nation pointed out that the directors of the Hawkeye series, Bert & Bertie, commented three purple hearts on the post — both Barton and Bishop's signifying color. This might — and probably does — mean absolutely nothing, but Marvel's been known to encourage these symbolic hints, and fans are currently running with it.

Even though the photo somewhat alludes to Kate Bishop's look and Steinfeld's use of the bow and arrow emoji could be interpreted as a reference to the Disney+ Hawkeye series, what's most likely going on here is that Steinfeld isn't actually dropping hints that she's starring in the series. Steinfeld's 24th birthday is on December 11, 2020 — 11 days from the time of her post. That makes her a Sagittarius, making the use of the image from @veryrealfantasy totally fitting. Also, remember the caption? Steinfeld wrote that she'd be seeing 24 in 11 days. And the bow and arrow emoji? Sagittarius is also known as the Archer, and the sign is represented by ... a bow and arrow symbol.

It may seem like this recent post of Steinfeld's was a sneaky way to confirm her involvement in Hawkeye — and it could be, stranger things have happened – but it feels far more plausible that she's simply excited for her upcoming birthday and can't wait to turn 24. This isn't to say that Steinfeld won't later confirm her role as Kate Bishop, but for now, all we know is that, well, we don't know who's playing the young Avenger in Hawkeye. The series recently started filming, so hopefully the ultra-secretive Marvel executives will reveal the actress behind Kate Bishop in the near future.