Director Rhys Thomas Talks ‘Hawkeye,’ Working With Marvel Studios, Trying To Get Ant-Man In The Show & More [The Playlist Podcast]

Hawkeye has a bit of a stigma in comics and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s the dude that shoots arrows. He’s not a god. He’s not a super-soldier. And he doesn’t have a billion-dollar suit of armor protecting him. He has three kids, a wife, and a quiver of trick arrows. That’s all. Well, he also has a new Disney+ TV series, aptly titled “Hawkeye.” And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we got a chance to speak with Rhys Thomas, one of the directors and executive producers of “Hawkeye,” to talk about what makes the archer such a great MCU character. 

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As the title suggests, “Hawkeye” is the story of Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner, who is one of the original Avengers in the MCU and is now getting the spotlight to himself in a new series. Well, he’s not by himself, as the series introduces fellow archer Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld, who brings all sorts of new chaos to Clint’s life.

Thomas is a new name in the realm of superhero storytelling, but he’s far from a new filmmaker. His previous work has been in various clips for “SNL,” as well as series such as “Comrade Detective,” “Documentary Now!” and “John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch.” And in our interview, we talk about how the comedy filmmaker landed his first Marvel gig, as well as the intense security that surrounds such an assignment.

“It’s intimidating and scary,” said Thomas about taking on his first Marvel gig. “You have a meeting with the head of security where he basically tells you how seriously they take this stuff and ‘Don’t tell anyone; we advise you to keep it under your hat.’ And I completely took it seriously. I didn’t tell my family for a while. Just keep my head down for a while.”

He continued, “But the way you block out all that stuff is, at the core, you have these two central characters, and you have to figure out a story…And yes, the concept arts and the pre-vis meetings were all new territory for me. And it’s thrilling, that’s the thing! ‘Wait, so we’re designing a superhero costume this morning that’s what we’re talking about…?’ [Laughs].”

Of course, working within the confines of the MCU also presents some unique challenges to a filmmaker who isn’t used to dealing with fact-checkers and multiple other spinoffs and franchise projects happening at the same time.

“I’d be firing off these notes and ideas,” said the director. “Sometimes, I’d wake up in the middle of the night and think, ‘I’ve solved it!’ And you get all excited about pitching it, and then that’s when someone like Kevin [Feige], the overarching brain of it all, will go, ‘Yeah, that’s really good and all but yeah, we’re already doing that in this movie.’”

He added, “They don’t overwhelm you. They don’t go, ‘Okay, here’s a big book and plan, so make sure you don’t touch the sides, don’t do that.’ They really just wait for you to stumble into them, and they kinda push you back in another direction.”

And apparently, one of the things Thomas wanted to perhaps add to the world of the “Hawkeye” series is none other than Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd. 

“I don’t want to reveal anything because we do kinda get to introduce [some characters],” teased Thomas. “Here’s one—Ant-man. Paul [Rudd] and Jeremy’s dynamic together I enjoy. I enjoyed their press tour dynamic when they were on the ‘Avengers’ run. So [Ant-Man] was a character that felt like a fun way to play at the absurdity of Clint’s situation…but I did get to have a little nod to that.”

In the rest of our discussion, we talk about the joys of Hawkeye, how great Hailee Steinfeld is as Kate Bishop, and the story behind casting Alaqua Cox as Echo. You can hear the full interview below:
As always, The Playlist Podcast is part of The Playlist Podcast Network—which includes Be Reel, Deep Focus, The Fourth Wall, The Discourse, and more—and can be heard on iTunes, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and now on Spotify. You can stream the podcast via the AnchorFM embed below or up top to listen on this page. Follow us on iTunes, and you’ll get this podcast as well as our other shows regularly. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we appreciate it. Thank you for listening.