It seems that the master archer and rogue Avenger himself, Hawkeye has recently found himself the center of attention in the rumor mills.

There wasn't much movie-related news to talk about over the Thanksgiving weekend. Of course, we had obscenely huge dinners, repeat performances of family squabbles, the vegetarian at the table awkwardly nursing the mashed potatoes and corn, and the obligatory news item about Black Friday shoppers trampling each other in an apocalyptic frenzy to be the first to get that $50 laptop that by no coincidence was stocked 5 per store. However, in topics NOT New Moon-related, the discussion had already begun about the casting of Hawkeye for 2012's Avengers mega-film.

While Jeremy Renner may not exactly be a household name, he has suddenly become synonymous with Hawkeye. (Rightfully or not.) After making a huge impression in, among other things, 2008 military epic, The Hurt Locker and as dying failed punk rocker, Jimmy Quidd in a 2007 episode of House, Renner seems to have caught the eye of the folks over at Marvel. In an interview with Empire magazine, Renner elaborates on his experience in being courted by the comic monolith. While the name, "Captain America" also seemed to arise, the speculation does not seem to be pointing in that direction and Renner himself does not believe he would be the right actor to hold the star-spangled shield as he comments:

"I met with the Marvel guys, actually, but we didn’t talk about Captain America. But one of the writers, Zak Penn, we’ve become friends over time and he was thinking maybe Hawkeye could be interesting. He sounds like an interesting character.”

When will we first get to see the character? As Empire points out, Iron Man 2 has already finished shooting, so the likelihood of Hawkeye surfacing in that film is pretty low. Unless they go all "Jedi Ghost of Hayden Christensen" on us, sneaking him into the picture by digital means, it will have to be one of the later Avengers lead-up films like Thor, First Avenger: Captain America, or even the mothership picture itself. According to Renner:

“If I was a betting man, I would bet that Hawkeye would probably show up in Thor, and then be in The Avengers,” he said. “But do I know for sure? I can’t say. But I’d love for that to happen. It’d be fun."

While obviously nothing about this rumor is a definitive lock, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (aka Ronin, aka Goliath, but we need not delve into that) would be served pretty well with Renner. Hawkeye was always the hot-headed renegade of the team, laden with authority issues and more chips on his shoulder than the Pringles factory. Renner fits that profile perfectly and on top of that, he has the right look.

What do you think? Is there someone else out there who can draw this Excalibur of purple-clad archer superheroes from the proverbial stone?

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