Series Phase 4 — Multiverse Opens (2024–2025)

Hawkeye (Season 1)

Name: Hawkeye (Season 1)
Released: 2021-11-24
Duration: 300 min
Rating: 7.8
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Tony Dalton, Alaqua Cox, Fra Fee

"This holiday season, the best gifts come with a bow."

Released November 24, 2021 5h ★ 7.8TMDB ★ Essential to the MCU

Former Avenger Clint Barton has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. Possible? Maybe with the help of Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old archer with dreams of becoming a superhero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.

Watch note

Kate Bishop becomes Hawkeye. Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) returns as the crime boss behind it all — directly setting up his Born Again arc as Mayor of New York.

Why It Matters in the MCU

The Hawkeye series is the MCU's most deliberately holiday-flavored production and its most grounded street-level New York story, using the five-day Christmas countdown structure to build a case-of-the-week procedural that happens to involve superheroes. Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop is the series' strongest creative success — a character with none of Clint Barton's trauma and all of his skill, whose fan-girl relationship with her mentor complicates both of them. The Eleanor Bishop/Kingpin connection reintroduces Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk to the MCU in a way that validates the Netflix run without requiring viewers to have seen it.

Watch These First

29 titles lead into Hawkeye (Season 1) — 122 hours in total. All 29 are essential.

Captain America: The First Avenger Essential 2h 4m ★ 7.0
Captain Marvel Essential 2h 4m ★ 6.8
Iron Man Essential 2h 6m ★ 7.7
Iron Man 2 Essential 2h 4m ★ 6.9
The Incredible Hulk Essential 1h 52m ★ 6.3
Iron Man 2 (Post-Credit Scene) Essential 0h 2m
Thor Essential 1h 55m ★ 6.8 +2 before this
Captain America: The First Avenger (Credits) Essential 0h 2m
Thor (Post-Credit Scene) Essential 0h 2m
The Avengers Essential 2h 23m ★ 8.1 +2 before this
Iron Man 3 Essential 2h 10m ★ 6.9
Thor: The Dark World Essential 1h 52m ★ 6.5
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Essential 2h 16m ★ 7.7 +3 before this
Guardians of the Galaxy Essential 2h 1m ★ 7.9
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Essential 2h 16m ★ 7.6
Daredevil (Season 1) Essential 11h ★ 8.2
Jessica Jones (Season 1) Essential 11h ★ 7.5
Avengers: Age of Ultron Essential 2h 21m ★ 7.3
Daredevil (Season 2) Essential 11h ★ 8.2
Captain America: Civil War Essential 2h 27m ★ 7.5 +1 before this
Luke Cage (Season 1) Essential 11h ★ 6.9
Iron Fist (Season 1) Essential 11h ★ 6.5
The Defenders (Season 1) Essential 8h ★ 7.0
Black Widow Essential 2h 14m ★ 7.2
Eyes of Wakanda (Season 1) Essential 2h ★ 6.2
Black Panther Essential 2h 14m ★ 7.4
Spider-Man: Homecoming Essential 2h 13m ★ 7.3
Doctor Strange Essential 1h 55m ★ 7.4
Daredevil (Season 3) Essential 11h ★ 8.2 +1 before this
Thor: Ragnarok Essential 2h 10m ★ 7.6 +2 before this
Avengers: Infinity War Essential 2h 29m ★ 8.2 +4 before this
Captain Marvel (Post-Credits Scene) Essential 0h 2m
Avengers: Endgame Essential 3h 2m ★ 8.2 +9 before this
Avengers: Endgame Encore Essential 3h 5m +9 before this
Black Widow (Post-Credit Scene) Essential 0h 3m

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Where It Fits in the MCU

Hawkeye (Season 1) sits at position 114 of 158 in the MCU's story-chronological order, placing it within the Phase 4 — Multiverse Opens (2024–2025) era. It is rated Essential — later MCU titles build on it. Watching in story-chronological order provides the most coherent character development experience — individual arcs build naturally toward the franchise's major crossover events, with each film's post-credits scenes carrying forward into what follows.