Supporting Cast Assemble!Variety has revealed that the upcoming Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series Hawkeye has cast a number of key supporting roles to join stars Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye/Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Hawkeye/Kate Bishop.
According to the article, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Alaqua Cox, Vera Farmiga, and Zahn McClarnon will feature in the series, with Fee playing Clown/Kazimierz Kazimierczak, Dalton playing The Swordsman/Jack Duquesne, and deaf Native American newcomer Cox playing Echo/Maya Lopez. Pugh will reprise her role as Yelena Belova from the Black Widow movie, while Farmiga will play Eleanor Bishop (Kate's mother), and McClarnon will play William Lopez (Maya's father).
Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, The Swordsman first appeared in The Avengers (vol.1) #19 as Jacques Duquesne, who helped to liberate the Southeast Asian fictional nation of Siancong before eventually joining the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. Although his swordplay made him one of the carnival's star attractions, he gradually descended into gambling and drunkenness, his youthful idealism long behind him.Eventually Duquesne, now older, took a young runaway named Clint Barton under his wing and taught him how to use bladed weapons, while another performer, Trick Shot, taught Barton archery, at which he proved to be a master. The young Clint stumbled upon Duquesne stealing money from the carnival's paymaster to pay a gambling debt. Clint attempted to turn his mentor over to the law, but he was pursued by Duquesne and badly beaten. Before Duquesne could deliver the fatal blow, Trick Shot stepped in to save the young boy. Duquesne then fled the carnival and adopted his swordsplay act to become a costumed supervillain.
Years later, the Swordsman attempted to join the Avengers (whose members included Clint Barton, now known as the superhero Hawkeye) in order to take advantage of the benefits that went with being an Avenger. He was refused entry into the team, largely due to Hawkeye's protests, the fact he was wanted in different states, and his threatening to kill Captain America after capturing him. After failing the first time around, he was accepted into the Avengers. However, he was secretly an agent of the Mandarin, who had teleported him to his castle before the Avengers could capture him, and created a pseudo-image of Iron Man to recommend the Swordsman to the Avengers. Soon after joining the Avengers, the Swordsman revealed his true intentions and betrayed the team, planting a bomb on the control panels which could be activated by remote-control. He soon had a change of heart and betrayed the Mandarin to save the Avengers. Despite his heroics, the Swordsman left the ranks of the Avengers, knowing the Mandarin would now be against him.
The Swordsman has appeared in the Captain America/Avengers portion of The Marvel Super Heroes animated series, voiced by Ed McNamara, and in The Avengers: United They Stand animated episode "Comes a Swordsman", voiced by Paul Essiembre.
Created by Matt Fraction and David Aja, Clown first appeared in Hawkeye (vol.4) #8 as Kazimierz Kazimierczak, who moved to America after his circus family was killed during an armed conflict. A traumatic accident in which his friend Janek died in an explosion in a subway lead Kazimierz to kill people with no apparent reason, from which he learned to make his living by becoming a mercenary.
He was hired by the leader of the "Tracksuit Draculas" mafia to kill Clint Barton, who recently had interfered in their plans. Clown killed Hawkeye's neighbor, Grills, as a way to harass Barton. The Clown arranged the return of the tracksuits for Ivan Banionis, the former owner of Barton's building, in order to lead a massive attack on the building and get it back. The Clown and the mafia raided Barton's building, but were opposed by heavy resistance from its inhabitants. In the end, Ivan was subdued by Kate Bishop and the Clown was dealt with by Clint while the rest of the neighbors contained the remaining tracksuits until the arrival of the police.
Created by David Mack and Joe Quesada, Echo first appeared in Daredevil (vol.2) #9 as Maya Lopez, whose father Willie "Crazy Horse" Lincoln was killed by the Kingpin. Crazy Horse left a bloody handprint on Maya's face and a last dying wish is that the Kingpin raise Maya well, which the Kingpin honored, caring for her as his own daughter. Believed to be mentally disabled, Maya was sent to an expensive school for people with learning disabilities. There, she managed to completely replicate a song on the piano. She was subsequently sent to another expensive school for prodigies, becoming a gifted woman.
Maya was sent by the Kingpin to prove Matt Murdock's weakness, telling her that Matt believed Fisk was a bad person and that she was the only way to prove him wrong. Murdock and Maya soon fell in love, but she took on the "Echo" guise to hunt down Daredevil, Matt's superhero alias. On her face, she painted a white handprint, similar to the bloody handprint left by her dying father. Maya proved more than a match for Daredevil, having watched videos of Daredevil and Bullseye fighting.
After several failed attempts, Maya noticed that Daredevil could easily move through the dark and figured out his weakness. She exploited this by having a fight in a place where Daredevil's heightened senses were useless. Maya easily took Daredevil down and nearly killed the vigilante, refusing only when she found out that Matt and Daredevil were one and the same. Matt corrected the Kingpin's lies, and in revenge, Maya confronted and shot Fisk in the face, blinding him and starting the chain of events that lead to the man's eventual downfall (Kingpin later partially recovered eyesight through reconstructive eye surgery).
Hawkeye is currently expected to debut on Disney+ sometime in late 2021.
