Disney taking aim at Hailee Steinfeld for Kate Bishop Hawkeye role

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Word has come down the wire that Disney is taking aim at TRUE GRIT and BUMBLEBEE actress Hailee Steinfeld for the role of Kate Bishop in the upcoming HAWKEYE television series at Disney Plus.

When the upcoming action-adventure series hits the mark on Disney's exclusive streaming service, HAWKEYE is poised to let fly a story that has Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) passing the torch to Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye. In the pages of Marvel comics, Kate is Clint's equal in every way, and has for the past several years established herself as an unrivaled marksman among her peers. For real, I've seen her pull off some supremely fancy moves with her trusty bow-and-arrow, the kind of stuff that would make Robin Hood's head spin.

Kate Bishop was created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, and made her Marvel debut in April of 2005 thanks to the pages of Young Avengers #1. After leaving the supergroup, Kate teamed with Clint for a number of sharp-shooting shenanigans courtesy of Marvel's Hawkeye from creators Matt Fraction and David Aja. With her fan-favorite status firmly established, Kate moved West to open her own private detective agency under the pen of Kelly Thompson. After two stellar arcs of the series, Thompson re-introduced Kate as the leader of the West Coast Avengers.

In addition to being a savvy slinger of arrows, Kate is also an adept fencer, swordswoman, martial artist, boxer, and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. She's also snarky as can be and is never afraid to pull a biting one-liner from her trusty quiver. 

Should Steinfeld assume the Kate Bishop role, the deal would likely represent a long-term commitment to the Marvel brand. This means that the character could appear in her own standalone series down the road or perhaps be introduced as a main player within the MCU.

My excitement for this potential casting knows no bounds. I've been a major fan of Steinfeld's work ever since she stole the show as Mattie Ross for Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of TRUE GRIT. Since that time, she's well-established herself as a force to be reckoned with and I can't think of a more well-deserved casting for the Kate Bishop character. Should the deal go through, Marvel will have really hit the bullseye with their desire to see Steinfeld as the next Hawkeye.