How Echo can connect to Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton in Marvel’s Hawkeye series

We recently spotted production still going on for Marvel’s Hawkeye series which stars Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop and surprisingly we also have Alaque Cox playing the role of Maya Lopez aka Echo which begs the question how is she connected to the story and the character. Here’s a speculation.

Before we proceed, spoilers for past New Avengers books and even past MCU movies.

So how does Echo connect with the main cast of Hawkeye? To understand the connection, check out my post on the origin of Ronin which happened during Brian Michael Bendis’ run on New Avengers. The short of this is that Barton returned from thr dead after House of M and joined up with what remained of the New Avengers team that was formed before Civil War. The new team’s first mission was to save Echo from Elektra and The Hand.

Maya was on a secret mission in Japan and was sent there by Iron Man and Captain America before their split during Civil War. Sonthe team had to clean up that mess and Clint joined in while adapting the identity of Ronin.

When both Clint and Echo were with the New Avengers, they were potentially a couple eith even some scenes with sexual tension between the two.

But that gets squashed in favor of Bobbi Morse aka Mockingbird by the end of Secret Invasion’ storyline.

So how does this connect with the Hawkeye TV show?

I think that Marvel Studios will loosely adapt this element. With a lost and confused Barton, still grieving at the loss of his family at the start of Endgame, meeting Cox’s Echo somewhere in Japan. Which ties up the largely missing backstory for Clint becoming a vigilante in Japan five years after the Snap.

Maybe they have an agreement and Clint takes over the role for years on end and kills gangsters all over the world, to take up a cause since he feels like the Avengers wont be of any help to him.

In the series however, the whole fling could be removed (but it would be neat to get that in too because Kate Bishop could tease him about it constantly) and its all a matter of broken promises. The important thing here is thatbthe costume could be explained and they could tie it back to the current series. Maybe the Maggia could be back wifh a score to settle and Steinfeld’s Bishop could be dragged into this mess.

Sounds plausible without reaching too much right? Love to hear what you think about this theory. Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo.