MCU Theory: Hawkeye's Trailer Secretly Explains Black Widow's Credits Scene
The Black Widow post-credits scene set up a confrontation between Yelena Belova and Clint Barton - and Hawkeye's trailer may have just explained it. From the very beginning, the promise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was that its various heroes had the potential to cross over. Taking a tip straight from the comics, Marvel has had as much fun bringing their heroes into head-on collision as they have teaming them up. And Black Widow's post-credits scene seemed to set up one particularly interesting encounter.
Sparring matches between Natasha Romanoff's Black Widow and Hawkeye have become something of a trope, with the best-buddies clashing in The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War, and even Avengers: Endgame. But there's a new Black Widow in town now, Natasha's little sister Yelena Belova, and so appropriately enough Black Widow's post-credits set up Yelena hunting Hawkeye down. Working for Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the post-Blip world, Yelena was assigned to kill the man blamed for Natasha's death.
All of which raised an obvious question; why exactly did the Contessa want Hawkeye dead? He's literally been trying to retire to spend time with his family since before the superhero Civil War, so frankly Clint Barton should be the least problematic member of the Avengers for her - no matter what the Contessa's true agenda may be. Fortunately, the first Hawkeye trailer may have provided an answer.
As expected, the Hawkeye trailer confirmed that - in the aftermath of the Blip - Clint has indeed attempted to retire in order to spend some quality time with his family. They're planning to have their first Christmas together in quite some time - right up until the moment Clint sees news footage showing the murderous vigilante Ronin has returned. As viewers know, but the general public apparently don't, Ronin was the identity Clint took after his family were snapped out of existence by Thanos; while wearing that mask, he cut a bloody swathe through the world's underworld, murdering those he believed didn't deserve to live. Black Widow caught up with him in the end, inspiring him to abandon his life as a serial killer and help reverse Thanos' snap, and Clint has been trying to put the past behind him. Unfortunately the appearance of what seems to be a copycat killer means he has no choice but to send his kids back home to his wife, and pick up his bow and arrow once again.
But, while the general public may not know Ronin was really Hawkeye under another name, that isn't necessarily the case with the U.S. government - for whom the Contessa presumably works. As confirmed by Avengers: Endgame, War Machine was well aware Clint had gone rogue, and he even seems to have been monitoring projects to track the murderous vigilante down. That probably means his superiors in the U.S. military were in the loop as well - and thus Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who has fingers in every pie, would know Ronin's true identity. If she caught sight of the same footage, she could be forgiven for presuming Clint had come out of retirement in the most brutal way - especially if she knew Ronin was active in New York at the same time Clint happened to be visiting. That would perfectly explain why she decided to ask Yelena Belova to have him killed.
If this is the case, then in reality the person the Contessa wants killed is not Hawkeye - it is the new Ronin. Unfortunately, Yelena Belova appears to have a more personal reason to target Clint; the Contessa suggested he is to blame for Natasha's death. It's unclear how public the events of Avengers: Endgame are in the MCU; characters in WandaVision could give a blow-for-blow account of Endgame's final battle against Thanos, while in Spider-Man: Far From Home there were hints the time travel was a secret. But clearly both the Contessa and Yelena know enough to hold Clint responsible, and the Contessa has just sent the new Black Widow on a mission to kill him. The stakes really couldn't get much more personal than this.
As noted, Hawkeye versus Black Widow fights are something of a tradition in the MCU. But this particular clash will be very different, simply because Yelena is going in for the kill. The interesting question is whether Hawkeye will know who has been sent to assassinate him; presumably he'll recognize Yelena's fighting style, having working alongside Natasha Romanoff for so many years, but does he know Nat used to have a "younger sister?" If he doesn't, then he may well simply assume a former Red Room operative is targeting him and simply try to take Yelena out himself; alternatively, if he does, he'll no doubt be devastated to be fighting someone Nat loved, and will try to talk Yelena down instead. Meanwhile, Kate Bishop's Ronin adds another wrinkle to the plot, because if this theory is correct then she is Yelena's true target.
This is definitely something of a tangled web, and it will be entertaining to see how all the different characters resolve their differences. Another theme of the Hawkeye Disney+ TV series is clearly "family," which means there's no way the show can end with Clint Barton and Yelena Belova remaining at crossed purposes; they both meant too much to Natasha, and besides - just as Black Widow/Hawkeye fights are a tradition in the MCU, so are their resolutions. Given this is set around Christmas, who knows? Perhaps Hawkeye will end with Clint's wife setting some new seats at the dining room table for Christmas dinner, with both Yelena and Kate Bishop welcomed as part of the wider Hawkeye family. That would certainly be a fitting end, one that honored everything the first Black Widow meant to them all, and it would be heartwarming to see Yelena interact with Nathaniel Barton - the young boy who was actually named in honor of her big sister.