'Hawkeye' Season 2 Should Just Be the Yelena/Kate Bishop Show

Now that Kate Bishop’s (Hailee Steinfeld) superhero name is officially Hawkeye — and yes, that’s what the ending of Hawkeye Season 1 implied, that Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) wants to share the moniker Hawkeye with his young parter — it’s time to look ahead at what a potential Hawkeye Season 2 could be like. While Marvel hasn’t yet announced a second season for Hawkeye, the fact that Disney+ promoted this week’s episode as the “Season Finale” and not “Series Finale” suggests that they definitely do want to make a Hawkeye Season 2. And if they do, I think that it’s clear that Clint Barton needs to get out of the way and Florence Pugh‘s Yelena Belova should be subbed in as co-lead. Hawkeye Season 2 should just be the Yelena/Kate Bishop show.

Hawkeye on Disney+ is an MCU series heavily inspired by the Matt Fraction and David Aja run of Hawkeye comics. The show finally unites Clint Barton, arguably the MCU’s most underwhelming superhero, with his biggest fan, Kate Bishop. When Kate was a young girl, she witnessed the atrocity of the Battle of New York (as seen in the first Avengers movie) and found hope watching one doofus with a bow and arrow shooting down aliens. Years later, Kate — who has spent her adolescence training as an archer, fencer, gymnast, and martial artist — stumbles upon the Ronin suit in a black market auction. Donning the disguise to do good, Kate attracts the ire of the criminals Clint did wrong wearing the ninja suit during the Blip. This sets the unlikely duo on a collision course that culminates in an electrifying Christmas Eve fight at Rockefeller Center.

Now the title Hawkeye obviously is in reference to Clint Barton, but it’s also Kate Bishop’s superhero name. In the comics, she is also known as Hawkeye and, as we mentioned, the final scene of Hawkeye Season 1 has Kate running a few possible superhero names by Clint. He hates them all and says he’s got an idea. The show then cuts to the Hawkeye title card, confirming he thinks Kate should share the Mantle. So Hawkeye the show isn’t just about Clint Barton. It’s equally about Kate Bishop. In fact, I think future seasons of Hawkeye should be all about Kate Bishop… And her emerging friendship with the MCU’s Black Widow protege, Yelena Belova.

Kate Bishop and Clint Barton certainly have chemistry, but every scene between Yelena and Kate has been dynamite. Whether we’re talking about how the two potential enemies get to know each other over a pot of boxed mac and cheese or the way they reinvented the Marvel elevator fight, watching Yelena and Kate Bishop together is magic. My personal favorite part of the last two episodes of Hawkeye have been just these two bantering. Well, them bantering and fighting. The MCU is obviously setting them up as the next generation version of their mentors, Black Widow and Hawkeye. What I’m wondering is if the MCU can speed that up and make Hawkeye Season 2 all about it.

If Hawkeye can now be the Clint Barton and/or Kate Bishop show, how about we make it primarily about Kate Bishop. After all, Hawkeye Season 1 did a tidy job of wrapping up Clint’s angst about Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) death, his murderous actions as Ronin, and his family. His personal growth is done. You know who has been set up as a newfound hero, loaded with the drama of a mother in jail, a massive corporation to run, and the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) as a nemesis*? Kate Bishop. The future of Hawkeye as a show is in following Kate.

Kate’s most interesting relationship in Hawkeye isn’t with Clint Barton, but Yelena. The two compliment and challenge each other in exciting ways. Kate has the resources to be a superhero, but she’s laden with naiveté. Yelena, on the other hand, has no obvious path outside of contract killing, but clearly yearns for family. Together they could compliment each other as a team. (And you know who would also be hilarious and fun with them? Krysten Ritter‘s Jessica Jones. Now that Netflix’s Daredevil and Kingpin have been folded into the MCU, why couldn’t the reluctant superhero be a big sister figure to Kate and Yelena? Hey, a girl can dream.)

Hawkeye is just the latest MCU success for Disney+ and there’s still story to tell. Obviously some of that will be addressed in the upcoming spin-off, Echo, but I think Kevin Feige should give the people what they want: more Yelena and Kate Bishop.

*Did Kingpin die in the Hawkeye finale? Maybe! I’m with Decider’s Alex Zalben in thinking no.

Where to stream Hawkeye