Jeremy Renner’s New Haircut Could Be Bad News For Hawkeye’s Family

If Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel made one thing clear, it’s that the MCU is not prepared for Thanos. The footage shown in Hall H had the Mad Titan tearing through the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy like tissue paper before literally pulling the moon from the sky to launch at the Earth like so many rocky missiles. For a shared universe that has always hesitated to kill off even the most tertiary superheroes, it appears not everyone is making it out of Avengers: Infinity War. And those that do will carry scars both physical and psychological with them for the rest of their lives.

Now that Infinity War has wrapped production and the untitled Avengers 4 has begun filming, the cast can’t hide what their character will look like on screen. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but Jeremy Renner’s new haircut might be an especially strange spoiler reveal. The Hawkeye actor took to Instagram to show off details of his mohawk cut, first seen on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

Why is this new hairstyle important? It’s reminiscent of the one sported by Hawkeye in the (now defunct) Ultimate Marvel universe, and that’s bad news for Hawkeye’s family. For those who don’t know, Marvel’s comics are not confined to a single universe. Superheroes and villains span the multiverse, each one having its own quirks. For example, in the main Marvel continuity, Hawkeye is not married. Instead, Clint Barton is locked in a snarky on-again/off-again relationship with his ex-wife, Mockingbird. However, since Mockingbird is part of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the MCU needed a different avenue for Renner’s character. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Hawkeye is married to wife Laura and they have three children. The family lived on a farm off-the-grid as Hawkeye was worried his enemies would use his family to hurt him. He was right. In the comics, Hawkeye’s entire family is killed by a traitor and Clint is framed for the murder. This understandably causes him to go a little off the deep end, cutting his hair and donning the vigilante costume that almost appeared in Captain America: Civil War.

So when the Barton homestead showed up in Civil War, comic book fans were nervous. Why introduce the farm if it wouldn’t play into a story down the line. Chekov’s Farmhouse, if you will. Even without the new hair, I’d have been convinced Hawkeye’s family would end up in Thanos’ crosshairs before the end of Infinity War. This just puts the nail in the coffin, so to speak. Is Clint headed for a full-on rampage, taking on the Titan responsible for causing him so much pain over the years? If so, is it a suicide mission? I mean, Thanos destroys the moon. What can one righteously angry man do against such reckless hate except completely obliterate him to show evil never triumphs?

[Via CBR]