‘Hawkeye’: Laura Barton’s Reveal and Keeping Christmas Alive at the Farm House

Finally, after one very bad week in New York City, Clint Barton makes it home in time for Christmas just like he promised the kids. There, he’s greeted by his wife Laura and kids Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel, who are thrilled to have him back for the holiday. Clint’s brought along two “strays,” too, introducing his family to Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog. But, that’s not all the introductions for this episode, as someone else is also revealed: Agent 19.

 

Throughout Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye, Clint has been trying to get a lost watch back. During the black-market auction that kicks off the events of the series, the watch, found at the Avengers Compound, is lost in the chaos and Clint spends the rest of the season trying to track it down. It later ends up with Maya Lopez, before finally being recovered. However, the watch isn’t actually Clint’s; but Laura’s. Handing it back to her, he jokes that she’s got to take better care of her stuff before she flips it over to reveal, on the backside, a S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia and AGENT 19 inscription underneath it.

 

“That's what's exciting about the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Rhys Thomas, the finale episode’s director tells Marvel.com. “It's Marvel, and the comics are so deep. It's a universe. What I love is that these ideas could get introduced as we were sort of prepping the show.”

 

Laura Barton, played by Linda Cardellini, has been a part of the MCU since Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron, where she was introduced as Clint’s off-the-grid wife. Living deep in the middle of nowhere on a secluded farm, she’s been raising the Barton kids while Clint’s away saving the world. But, turns out, that her history with Clint runs deeper than viewers initially realize.

 

“We've seen her over these years as his wife, and there was obviously a desire [to expand her backstory],” Thomas continues. “We should know more about her. There's more to her than just staying at home with the kids. It was a fun little thing to tease out over the season and again a nice little payoff that hopefully promises more of a character planted at the end.”

 

While we might not see Laura in action, she’s certainly been busy at home keeping the Christmas spirit alive while Clint’s been away. “One of the things we're trying to do is really ground [the Bartons] in very pure Americana, like an American Gothic version of Clint and his life,” Maya Shimoguchi, who serves as the art director for the series, tells Marvel.com.  “[The house] is a really beautiful piece of American Americana.”

 

Filmed on a farm outside of Atlanta, Georgia, the Barton house serves as Clint’s anchor and North Star as he’s trying to get back home. And considering the time of the year, it needed to be covered head to toe in Christmas.

 

“There was so much Christmas in the show at large, so we were trying to really zero in on a very kind of homemade Christmas as opposed to a commercialized Christmas, which was evidenced in other parts of the episodes,” Shimoguchi continues. “Going and actually filming inside of that farmhouse was really fun because instead of being like a really designed interior, we were using what is actually there in this really amazing property. The set decorator, Missy Parker, did lots and lots of layers of Christmas. But as we got closer to Christmas, it got denser with Christmas. Her sensibility and fun that came with all of that, you can see it in every corner. It's there.”

 

All episodes of Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+.

 

Starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, Hawkeye also features Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. Helmed by Rhys Thomas and directing duo Bert and Bertie, Hawkeye is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.

 

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