Hawkeye's Opening Scene Has an Avengers-Sized Continuity Mistake

WARNING - This article contains spoilers from Episode 1 of Hawkeye.

Even a decade later, new consequences of the Battle of New York (The Avengers, 2012) continue to unravel. The premiere episode of Hawkeye revealed Earth's Mightiest Heroes' debut bout against Loki's invading army was the catalyst for Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop to embrace that superhero life.

The show's opening scene showcased the Battle of New York from a young Kate Bishop's perspective, as the future archer feverishly searched for her parents while her penthouse was subject to various Chitauri blasts. With her wall destroyed, and her living room exposed to the outside world, Kate stood frozen in fear as a Chitauri chariot charged towards her. Before Earth's unwelcome visitors could do any damage, Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton took out the chariot with an exploding arrow, leaving Kate in awe of her unexpected savior.

Kate watches on as Hawkeye executes his iconic grapple arrow dive before her mother, Vera Farmiga's Eleanor Bishop, rushes them out of the penthouse. 

While this scene successfully repurposed the events of the Battle of New York, fans have noticed the sequence does not exactly follow The Avengers' chronology.

Fans Notice Chronology Error in Hawkeye's Battle of New York

Rogers: The Musical isn't the only one who retold the Battle of New York's events incorrectly.

Fans have noticed a continuity error in Hawkeye's opening scene. In 2012's The Avengers, Chris Hemsworth's Thor tussles with Tom Hiddleston's Loki atop Stark Tower. 

 The clash of Asgardians leads to Stark Tower losing its 'K,' as the blast of Mjolnir colliding with Loki's scepter knocks the first of four letters off the building's label.

 18 minutes after the 'K' falls, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye leaps off a nearby building, grapple-arrowing his way to safety.

Switching over to Kate Bishop's perspective in Hawkeye, the future archer watches on as a Chitauri chariot charges in her direction. Stark Tower can be spotted in the immediate distance; however, it is only missing its 'R.'

From here, Hawkeye launches an explosive arrow at the chariot, saving the young Bishop. Kate then watches on as Hawkeye makes that aforementioned leap.

Battle of New York's Continuity Woes

There isn't much debate over this continuity error. It's simply a mistake.

While some could try to argue that The Avengers' Battle of New York scenes are intercut, meaning the jumps from Loki and Thor to Hawkeye and the Chitauri are happening much closer together than the runtime suggests, the Stark Tower destruction says otherwise. In The Avengers, the first Stark Tower letter to fall is 'K,' while Hawkeye has the 'R' missing before the rest.

This isn't the first instance of the Battle of New York creating some confusing continuity within the MCU. 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming opened with Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes leading a crew to clean up the aftermath before an "EIGHT YEARS LATER" title card flashed audiences forward to the present day. This would've placed Homecoming in 2020, where the film's title character is collecting dust right in the middle of Avengers: Endgame's five-year gap. 

Marvel Studios' creators have since voiced that Homecoming's time jump was "very incorrect," which is how they could play this Hawkeye error. That said, there is another avenue the show could take this mistake.

An Inaccurate Recollection by Design?

The opening scene of Hawkeye seems set in 2012, but there's a chance it could be a present-day Kate Bishop memory. If that's the case, director Rhys Thomas could say the young Kate was in such a state of shock that she remembered the events differently.

That, or they could have been retold to her inaccurately by design.

Since the series debuted, Vera Farmiga's Eleanor Bishop has been at the top of fans' suspicious lists. Her arguments with both her first husband and Armond Duquesne preceded their respective deaths. While it's highly unlikely that she had any insight into the Chitauri invasion before it occurred, there's every chance that Eleanor took advantage of a chaotic situation.

If that's the case, she would've retold the Battle of New York to her daughter very differently than how it actually went down, which would've subconsciously made Kate grow up thinking subtle changes were actually accurate recollections.

Crazier things have happened.

The first two episodes of Hawkeye are streaming now on Disney+.