Why The MCU’s Pizza Dog Will Redeem Hawkeye

Disney+’s Hawkeye series will deal with the fallout from Clint Barton’s (Jeremy Renner) actions in Avengers: Endgame and Pizza Dog will show the archer in his best light. While he’s largely been a background player in Avengers movies, Hawkeye is the long-awaited spotlight on Barton, a former Agent of SHIELD and a founding member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But Clint’s not exactly on his own; in Hawkeye, he’s training his young protege, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who may even be a better archer than he is, and they have Pizza Dog.

Disney Plus’ Hawkeye series is reportedly set in 2025, picking up two years after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Clint Barton wasn’t one of the billions of souls who died from Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) Infinity Gauntlet snap but he witnessed his entire family get dusted. This sent Barton on a five-year path of bloody vengeance as he took out his grief and gruesomely murdered an untold number of international criminals. When Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) found him in 2023, Clint was a shattered soul without hope. Speaking of souls, Romanoff wouldn’t allow Barton to trade his life for the Soul Stone; he had to watch as Nat committed suicide so that Clint could leave Vormir with the sixth Infinity Stone. Although the Barton family was restored by Hulk’s (Mark Ruffalo) Infinity Gauntlet snap, and the Avengers defeated Thanos once and for all, Clint was still coping with everything and everyone he’d lost at the funeral for Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) at the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame.

How and why Clint Barton finds himself in Brooklyn, New York training Kate Bishop two years after Endgame is one of the many intriguing questions Hawkeye will answer. The Disney Plus show is based upon the acclaimed Marvel Comics run by Matt Fraction and Dave Aja, which depicted Barton as a disaster who still manages to heroically rise to the occasion. By contrast, Kate is more confident and capable beyond her years but can still learn a thing or two from her mentor. In the comics, the two Hawkeyes run afoul of international gangsters and a local group of thugs called the Tracksuit Draculas, which is how Clint and Kate come to own Arrow, a dog who is victimized by the street-level violence that surrounds Barton. Clint saves the dog’s life and names him Lucky, but because of his love of pizza, the adorable pooch gets the nickname Pizza Dog.

Marvel Studios is famed for delving into the complex emotional lives of their characters and rooting out their traumas. Hawkeye will be no different as Barton is certainly still a mess after everything he endured in Avengers: Endgame, and he may even have lost some of his hearing. But the beauty of Hawkeye is how Clint gets a new lease on life and heroism by training Kate and adopting Pizza Dog. A literal rescue dog, Lucky is just the ticket to help Barton smooth out his jagged edges; taking care of a dog and. in turn, receiving its unconditional love is incredibly healing. Having lost his best friend Natasha and, evidently, no longer one of the Avengers, Clint needs Pizza Dog as much as the doggo needs Hawkeye.

From what’s already known about the show, Hawkeye will be a fascinating web of intrigue that deals with themes of mentors and students, which not only involves Clint and Kate but the emergence of Swordsman (Tony Dalton), the man who trained Barton to be the world’s greatest marksman. Barton meeting Natasha’s “sister” Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) from Black Widow will also open up old wounds. Further, Kate will be dealing with pressures from her mother Eleanor (Vera Farmiga), who may be in league with some bad people. But while Hawkeye is the rise of a hero in Kate Bishop, it’s also a much-needed redemption for Clint Barton, who gets to have man’s best friend, Pizza Dog, help him get past his own traumas and become the superhero he truly is.