Development By April 2019,
Marvel Studios was developing a
Disney+ series starring
Jeremy Renner's
Clint Barton / Hawkeye from the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, in which Barton would bequeath the mantle of Hawkeye to
Kate Bishop. In July 2020,
Bert and Bertie were hired to direct three episodes of
Hawkeye. Executive producers for the series include
head writer Jonathan Igla,
Rhys Thomas,
Brad Winderbaum,
Trinh Tran,
Victoria Alonso,
Louis D'Esposito, and
Kevin Feige. The fifth episode, titled "Ronin", was written by Jenna Noel Frazier, and was released on December 15, 2021.
Writing While writing the episode, Marvel Studios gave Bert and Bertie access to secret screenings of
Black Widow (2021), while also receiving information on the
Statue of Liberty's depiction in
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). On writing a reference for
No Way Home in the episode, Bertie had said "There's a need to know basis. Things like that, there may have been a slightly larger reference to it in the original scripts". The tone of the hot sauce scene was influenced from the script, with Bert and Bertie calling the tone of the scene being "comedy and also real danger and then some very deep emotion and stakes". They also felt that Pugh and Steinfeld's performance in the scene had improved its quality. Bert described the scene in which Barton visits the commemorating plague for the Battle of New York as being a "very important scene" and an emotional experience for Barton as he is coping with the
trauma from
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow's death. She also stated that "It was so important that there is a merging of the Clint Barton and the Ronin that he believes he's left behind. At the end of the [plaque] scene, it was important for us to have him lift that black hoody up, which is a hint to where we are going. It's Clint facing his dark past and putting on his dark past. He wants to put that behind him, but the fact of the matter is, if this doesn't go down the way he wants it to go down, he's willing to do anything to save and protect his family".
Casting reprises his role as
Kingpin from the
Marvel Television series
Daredevil in the episode. The episode stars
Jeremy Renner as
Clint Barton / Hawkeye,
Hailee Steinfeld as
Kate Bishop,
Florence Pugh as
Yelena Belova,
Tony Dalton as
Jack Duquesne,
Fra Fee as
Kazi,
Vincent D'Onofrio as
Wilson Fisk / Kingpin,
Alaqua Cox as
Maya Lopez,
Aleks Paunovic as Ivan,
Piotr Adamczyk as Thomas,
Linda Cardellini as
Laura Barton, and
Vera Farmiga as Eleanor Bishop. D'Onofrio reprises his role as Fisk from the
Marvel Television series
Daredevil (2015–2018). Directors Bert and Bertie said they were excited to include the character due to the previous lack of connectivity between
Marvel Studios and Marvel Television productions. On the decision to introduce Fisk with a grainy photo at the end of the episode, Bertie said "there've been different iterations of how Kingpin was revealed and this is the one that served the story". Also appearing are Clayton English as Grills, Ivan Mbakop as Detective Caudle, Franco Castan as Detective Rivera, Yssa Mei Panganiban as Sonya, and Annie Hamilton as Ana.
Design The episode's main-on-end title sequence was designed by
Perception.
Filming Speaking to the appearance of Belova in the episode, Bert and Bertie wanted to celebrate "this incredibly off-the-wall character" and how she would interact with the "naive, wide-eyed, super-smart, fierce, badass" Kate Bishop. Pugh provided insight to what she thought the character would be wearing when meeting with Bishop. Most of the conversation between Bishop and Belova at Bishop's apartment was improvised. Bertie said they "did a rehearsal, but every single thing was just perfect between them, and the improvisation that they brought to it was dynamite". The two also improvised where Bishop threw the hot sauce at Belova, and after that, Pugh decided to put it on the macaroni and eat it. When filming Belova's Blip scene, the production team had practically designed the bathroom set and filmed it using long, continuous shots as they wanted the viewers to be "experiencing it with Yelena" and also to "experience the Blip on a real human level". The camera operators had memorized Pugh's movements for the scene to film the scene with more ease. For Kingpin's introduction to a Marvel Studios project, Bert and Bertie were not beholden to design aspects from
Daredevil, but wanted to take into account the character's presence from the comics and
Daredevil for this series. == Marketing ==