While we knew that the directors were thinking about mentioning Hawkeye in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘, they have now shared what he was going to do if he had been included in the movie. Yes, Jeremy Renner (‘The Avengers,’ ‘Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters’) went from a larger role, to a throwaway mention, to not appearing at all. It’s a shame for purple wearing super heroes everywhere.

According to Joe Russo, the scene that was never even filmed went as follows.

What it was going to be, we were trying to complicate the relationship between Cap and his S.H.I.E.L.D agent friends. If Hawkeye got a call from S.H.I.E.L.D saying Captain America is a fugitive, would he listen to that call or not listen to that call? That sequence actually was heartbreaking for us to cut it. I think it ultimately might have been a conflict with Renner’s schedule. But there was a great sequence where Hawkeye was chasing Cap through Washington D.C. there was an awesome sequence where they confronted each other in a ravine on the outskirts of D.C. and Hawkeye was shooting a series of arrows closing in on Cap, Cap closing in on him. And then Cap took him down and he realized for the first time that Hawkeye was trying to trick S.H.I.E.L.D, where he whispered something into Cap’s ear that Cap had a tracker on his suit and to punch Hawkeye to make it look real, because there was a Quinjet hovering above where they were watching the feedback back at S.H.I.E.L.D.

So it was a cool sequence. But look, there’s a million iterations of films, and especially when dealing with Marvel movies where characters can come in or come out during the creative process. And you keep working and working like a Rubik’s Cube till you find the right configuration where everything lines up. So even though we lost that sequence, I think we may have streamlined the movie and made it a little bit more propulsive.

While fans of the purple archer might disagree and wish he had been included, the movie was nearly perfectly edited as it was. Adding another twenty minute action sequence could have been fun to watch but may have made it just a tad too long. At the very least we should see him more often with a larger role in ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron‘, ‘Captain America 3‘, and beyond.

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ will be shield smashing Hydra in the face on Blu-ray and DVD this September 9th.

Source: Cinema Blend