Warning: Contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? episode 8.
In What If…? episode 8, the MCU finally showed conclusively why Hawkeye wasn’t the one to sacrifice himself in Avengers: Endgame by giving him a perfect death. With What If…? taking place in alternate timelines it gives the MCU a chance to play out how characters might have acted had situations been different. While assuming that the events leading up to a situation are the same, by paralleling new stories they can delve deeper into characters' motivations, which is exactly what they have done with Hawkeye and Black Widow here.
In Avengers: Endgame Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) discover that one must sacrifice the other on Vormir to be able to gain the Soul Stone. The two battle it out but Black Widow eventually manages to sacrifice herself leaving some audience members upset that it didn’t happen the other way around. In What If…? episode 8, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff (Lake Bell) are fleeing up a shaft from an army of Ultron bots when Hawkeye slips and Widow catches his hand. Hawkeye chose to plummet into the Ultron bots and takes them with him in a massive explosion, sacrificing himself so that Natasha can escape.
In Avengers: Endgame, Hawkeye and Natasha are facing the possibility that they can bring his family back if they get all of the Infinity Stones. While Hawkeye would be willing to die to bring them back, Natasha chooses to sacrifice herself so that he can be with them when they return. Ultimately her sacrifice is not for Hawkeye but rather for his family. What If…? contrasts this by showing the result of Hawkeye having no hope left. When he and Natasha see the bombs dropping across the Earth, his only comment is to say his wife’s name. By the time they are trying to escape the Ultron bots he has stated that he has run out of fight. Without his family and no known way to bring them back, his sacrifice is the one that makes sense, but in Avengers: Endgame the possibility of saving them meant that it had to be Natasha who died.
This explanation tracks when looking at the way that Hawkeye spent his five years between the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Without his family, he became Ronin and ruthlessly hunted criminals across the world. While this is explained as him feeling it is unjust that bad people got to live when his family didn’t, there is another explanation. With his family gone and no hope of bringing them back he is effectively looking to die at the hands of those he is hunting but wants to take as many with him as he can, just as with the Ultron bots. It is only his skill that keeps Hawkeye alive as Ronin, and it is those same skills that kept him going in What If…? up to a point.
Revisiting the idea of sacrifice and the scene on Vormir was clearly an intentional choice on the part of the What If…? creators. Beyond the conceptual similarity between the scenes, several of the shots are blocked in a way that echoes specific shots from the fight on Vormir including the clasping of hands, the eventual fall, and the shockwave that results from the sacrifice. While some parts of What If…? have seemingly forgotten key elements of the MCU or insulted long-running characters, this choice demonstrates the show’s potential at its finest.
Marvel’s What If…? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.
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