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The visual effects were a challenge. 'It was just a lot of stress.' 40 C I N E M O N T A G E appeal was the Christmas setting. Tim Roche, ACE, who most recently worked on the Disney+ MCU series "WandaVision," praised Marvel Studios for making each of its shows and movies feel different while remaining true to the overall universe. "There's a similar language and a similar sort of tone that they share in a lot of ways, but this was just so different," Roche said. "Set in New York City, much more gritty, C O V E R S T O R Y basically we're introducing a new character in a show called 'Hawkeye,' and let's be clear that Hawkeye may not be everybody's favorite Avenger," Gibson said. "You're creating almost two levels of firewall of resistance between the audience. Mean- ing, it's about Hawkeye: 'Who's that? The bow-and-arrow guy? OK, cool.' But also we have this direction where we're very much focused on introducing a new character to the MCU. . . . Just the idea of getting to a place where people are embracing this new character with open arms is certainly the thing I'm most proud of." Not that the character of Hawkeye/Clint Barton lacked for fans among the editors. Tan, who previously worked on the Disney+ MCU series "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," jumped at the chance to leap into the mind of a char- acter whose backstory had only been sketched in previous entries in the MCU. "I actually really like Hawk- eye, and just from watching all the movies, he was a character that I wish we got to explore more," said Tan. (Renner had appeared as Hawkeye/Barton in numerous previous MCU movies, including "The Aveng- ers" [2012], "Avengers: Age of Ultron" [2015], and "Avengers: Endgame" [2019].) Tan, who w a s e x c i t e d a t t h e i d e a o f "spending six mini-movies kind of exploring his charac- ter," was also intrigued with the possibilities of exploring the dynamic between Hawkeye/Barton and Bishop: "I thought this was interesting — having a mentor/mentee type of approach to a story," she said. Ad d e d G i b s o n : " I t h i n k t h a t 's v e r y much to Marvel's credit that they're ex- ploring these little corners of the universe that are connected, but there's a light interconnection." For the editors, another big part of the but also a Christmas series." The team kept returning to that idea as their North Star, Roche said. "This is a Christmas movie," he said. "This is fun. Let's have fun with it." The 1990 Hughes family comedy "Home Alone" was a constant point of reference in terms of tone, he added. Of course, "Hawkeye" isn't all about jokes and good cheer. At the heart of it all is the central relationship between Hawkeye/ Barton and Bishop. "It is kind of like a 'Mid- night Run' in the sense that they start out, Jeremy doesn't want to have anything to do with [Bishop] — he just wants to ge t h o m e to h i s f a m i l y," Roche said. "Then they sort of build a relationship over those six episodes to: 'Of course you can't leave her.' He sees some- thing in her. I feel that we did a good job of feeding their rela- tionship, the conflict in it, and then resolving it in a good way." In the course of their ad- ventures, Hawkeye/Barton and Bishop encounter all manner of nemeses. "You've got a lot of actors, you've got a lot of balls in the air," Gibson said. "Ulti- mately, I think the architecture of the show is almost like a roll- ercoaster that you keep adding passengers to. As we go up, we add a Yelena [Florence Pugh], we add a Maya [Alaqua Cox]." Helping to anchor the series was the presence of Steinfeld, who received an Oscar nomi- nation for her performance in the Coen Brothers' remake of "True Grit" (2010). "She's just an insane talent. You knew that if you had her planted in the center of any situation o r s ce n e, s h e wo u l d a l ways gu i d e yo u through," Gibson said. "She could always find something. She's an amazing listener." The picture editors, who had not pre- viously worked together, found that they were good listeners, too. "We're always showing each other things," Tan said. "When we bring in new music cues or some- Kaitlin Hollingsworth Hecker, Tim Roche, James Gadd. P H OT O : M A R K E D WA R D S