Having been starved of new content throughout 2020 thanks to the COVID pandemic, Marvel fans have had a veritable feast served up this year as Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe belatedly got underway with WandaVision kicking off a packed film and television slate consisting of four movies and five TV series – the last of which, Hawkeye, got underway on Disney+ last week.
However, despite the Jeremy Renner-led show being the first (and likely only) of Marvel Studios’ TV series to centre around one of the original Avengers, it seems that fatigue may be kicking in somewhat as Deadline is reporting that viewing figures for last week’s two-episode premiere of Hawkeye are the lowest for any of the live-action shows so far.
According to Samba TV stats, Hawkeye’s first episode was watched by 1.5 million U.S. households in its first five days, with 1.3 million tuning in to the second episode. That’s down some 40% on Loki, which drew 2.5 million for its first episode over the same timeframe, and is also lower than the 3-day figures for the premiere episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (1.8 million) and WandaVision (1.6 million).
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Hawkeye’s third episode ‘Echoes’ here
So, what can we read into this? Well, the headline doesn’t make for great reading for Marvel, which hasn’t had the greatest of years with Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals all underperforming at the box office and occupying three of the bottom five spots when it comes to the MCU’s lowest earners. However, we suspect there’s a number of households holding off to binge the entire series over Christmas, and with the Sony co-produced Spider-Man: No Way Home pulling in the biggest ticket presales since Avengers: Endgame, it’s way to premature to be sounding the death knell for the MCU either.
Former Avenger Clint Barton has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. Possible? Maybe with the help of Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old archer with dreams of becoming a Super Hero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.
Hawkeye sees Jeremy Renner returning as Clint Barton alongside Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) as Kate Bishop, Florence Pugh (Black Widow) as Yelena Belova, Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring) as Eleanor Bishop, Fra Fee (Les Miserables) as Kazi, Tony Dalton (Better Call Saul) as Jack Duquesne, Zahn McClarnon (Fargo) as William Lopez, newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, and Jolt as Lucky the Pizza Dog.
Hawkeye airs on Disney+ on Wednesdays.
