Marvel Executive Producer Trinh Tran Compares Hawkeye's Clint Barton To The OG Avengers - Exclusive

Hawkeye's co-heroes may typically wear more actual masks than the archer, but there's no denying that Clint Barton has donned quite a few of his own metaphorical masks over the years. Clint is a bit of an enigma between his secret family, his stint as Ronan, and his battling personalities of funny, stoic, family-oriented, and occasional loner status. 

With such a rich character history, the most challenging job for "Hawkeye" creatives hinged on which Clint Barton trait was best for the small screen. As it turns out, Hawkeye shines the brightest when he has a chance to show off his full kaleidoscope of character traits, and "Hawkeye" on Disney+ lets him do just that.

During an exclusive interview with Looper, Trinh Tran dished on Clint Barton's evolution from comics to the MCU and ultimately to his self-titled Disney+ show. She also revealed why Kate Bishop is the perfect partner in crime for our surly hero. 

One of the most entertaining aspects of "Hawkeye" is its slightly meta self-awareness of Hawkeye's position as the odd man out in terms of popularity. Not everyone knows an icon when they see one. The show enhances his character and shows a different side of him that we've seen in the "Avengers" movies, , according to Tran: "And that is actually one of the very reasons why I wanted to explore the Clint Barton story in the 'Hawkeye' series, is because there is a different side of Clint in the comics that I find so interesting, and so appealing, and so fun to read." 

She added, "And it was figuring out how do we pull that out but still preserve the character that we have created in the last ten years in the 'Avengers' movie. We started the Clint Barton journey in the 'Avengers' movie, more on the 'Ultimate' Clint side, right? It was the 'Ultimate Comics' side." She noted that this version of Clint is a little more serious and a family man.

However, the name of the comics game is meshing previous iterations of a character to whatever version of the hero is needed for the current project. "The Fraction run Hawkeye Clint Barton is the loner, reckless person. So how do we meld those two together," Tran mused.

When it comes to figuring out a catalyst to bring together both sides of Clint, the answer was clear: Kate Bishop. "And what I was really interested in is the lighter tone side of Clint, and I thought, Kate Bishop is the perfect person to bring that side out because she's a ball of energy — she's so smart, she can't stop talking, she's almost the opposite of who Clint is in that personality," Tran explained. "And when you put somebody like her with him, I think it's just that dynamic is gold and it's magic. And it brings out that fun humor side of him that we haven't seen yet, and that's what makes this particular series enjoyable." It's hard to argue with Tran's logic, given how seamlessly it's played out on screen so far. Fans can certainly argue that this is the best version of Clint we've seen in the MCU yet.

Fans can tune into "Hawkeye" streaming Wednesdays on Disney+.