Avengers: Infinity War - What Hawkeye's "Own Journey" Really Means
Nope, he's STILL not in it.
After the release of the second trailer for Avengers: Infinity War and the excellent poster release, fans of Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye were up in arms at the apparent oversight that left him out entirely. Some even responded with Photoshopped posters reinstating the character "as it should have been" to rectify the injustice.
But there's a good reason Hawkeye isn't on the poster or in the trailer. It's because he's not in the movie. Not in any sort of meaningful way, and no amount of Photoshopping posters will change that because we already have FIRM evidence that it's the case. In the Infinity War prelude comic, it is confirmed that Hawkeye is retired, having made the decision in order to spend more time with his family.
That news is already out there, so it's a little odd that the conversation is happening again. And that comments that were posted by Collider on set last year have come out with a new interpretation entirely suggesting something that is false.
Here's what the Russos said:
Coming out of Civil War, he’s in the same position that Cap and Falcon are at the end of that movie. And Ant-Man. And coming into this movie you know … the characters on Cap’s side coming out of the Civil War, some made certain decisions and others made other decisions that led to different paths in them dealing with oversight in this movie in a different way. So Hawkeye’s on his own journey in this movie.
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That is being taken to mean that Hawkeye is up to something on his own - with one theory suggesting he's even on a mission to recover the Soul Stone. It's a bold theory, and given the fact that he's retired is clearly not correct.
Please note: at no point here do the Russos say he's "on his own mission" or even that he's "up to his own thing" in Infinity War. They say he's on his own journey, which definitely doesn't mean he's going on an actual trip. His journey is being a family man - something he hasn't done since he became an Avenger - and there's no way his guilt at leaving his family to be concerned about his safety would be immediately forgotten for the sake of another job.
He's not going anywhere.
Now consider the difference between this phrasing and the confirmation that Thor and Thanos are the most important characters in Infinity War with more screentime than most. We already know that Thor IS on his own mission in Infinity War - on a quest to recover Stormbreaker as a replacement for Mjolnir that will take him to the realm of the Dwarves. He goes with Rocket and Groot, it's been fairly well-established.
The difference in the openness on how that story detail was revealed and the vagueness on Hawkeye's "journey" says a lot in itself, but the fact that Hawkeye definitely isn't going to have a significant amount of screentime rules out him being on a Thor-like individual mission.
The reality of this whole situation is that Hawkeye's journey is a more reserved, reflective journey and while he'll come into play in Avengers 4 as Ronin, if he appears at all in Infinity War it will be in such a minor way that it will be clear why he's not in the advertising.