We Finally Know Who Makes Hawkeye's Trick Arrows In The MCU

This holiday season, Marvel fans are getting a long overdue gift in the form of the new Disney+ series "Hawkeye." Jeremy Renner has played the iconic sharpshooter since 2012, and yet the character has often been relegated to the background. Even as the rest of the original Avengers team got their standalone movies (even the Hulk got one, in case you forgot), Clint Barton's biggest moments have come in a handful of scenes distributed throughout the MCU.

In the comics, Hawkeye is incredibly powerful and resourceful, even ripping his own fingernails out to use as projectiles in a particularly memorable scene. He is known for using a variety of "trick" arrows, and the MCU version of the character also relies on high-tech arrows that explode on impact, deploy grappling hooks, or even hack computers. 

Now, it looks like the Disney+ show will finally show us what the MCU version of the character is truly capable of, even bringing aboard a legendary comics writer who worked on the print "Hawkeye" series — and a new TV promo spot, released during Sunday night football, gives us a hint at where his trick arrows come from in the first place.

The new 30-second teaser spot, which premiered during Sunday night football, focuses on the dynamic between Hawkeye and his young protégé Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) as they gear up to fight against an "Avengers level threat." 

"We need a ton of trick arrows," Hawkeye says in a voiceover, as the trailer moves to shots of a workshop.

We see Hawkeye intently turning a partially constructed arrow in his hand, which seems to confirm that he does indeed build his own projectiles. But of course, the kind of technology able to fit inside the head of an arrow is pretty darn advanced. It's not exactly the sort of thing someone like Hawkeye has laying around. Lucky for Clint, there's someone in the MCU who specializes in making weaponry small enough to fit inside a red and gold super-suit. In the arrow workshop, we can clearly see a hardcover case full of arrowheads marked with the Stark Industries logo, which means Tony Stark has been funding Hawkeye's arsenal since at least the first Avengers movie.

While it remains unclear whether "Hawkeye" will be Renner's last outing as the titular archer, the show feels like a torch-passing to Steinfeld, perhaps serving the same function as "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" did in passing the mantle of Captain America to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, as well as how "Black Widow" unofficially handed that title to Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova. With that in mind, it makes sense for Kate Bishop to learn the tricks of the arrow-slinging trade. After all, considering how there are so many dangers lurking around in the MCU's Phase 4 — from The Ten Rings to Madame Hydra – she's certainly going to need them.