This article contains spoilers for Black Widow and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TFATWS)

The trailer for Marvel Studios’ newest show Hawkeye is out and if the backtrack Andy William’s “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, or the some-what cheesy tagline “This holiday season, the best gifts come with a bow” give any indication, it’s going to be the feel good Christmas show of the year. 

Hawkeye was first announced at Disney’s Investor’s Day in January of 2021. CEO of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feigi said the project would “finally give Clint Barton some time to shine”.  Shine at the top of a Christmas tree apparently, as the trailer gives off major Christmas vibes. The preview opens with a shot of snowy New York all lit up for the holidays, which then cuts to Clint sitting around the table with his wife and three kids, as his only daughter Lila remarks “this is the first Christmas we’ve had together in years”. So ya, this is going to be a Christmas show. We then see a sign on Broadway for “Rogers: The Musical”. A musical that apparently “captures the heart of a hero.” Later in the trailer we see a callback to the musical, with what appears to be a scene from the actual thing, featuring a low budget Steve Rogers, Loki, Thor, Hulk, and what appear to be Black Widow, Tony Stark and Hawkeye in the rafters, along with some Chitari aliens from the first Avengers movie. Marvel, I’m gonna need a full length release of Rogers: The Musical ASAP. 

Over the course of the trailer, we see more action scenes typical of Marvel, car chases, things blowing up, the usual. What’s unusual is the score under these scenes, what would usually be an upbeat, suspenseful soundtrack is replaced by the holiday classic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Other details make it very clear that the show will be set around the holidays. Snowy New York, the several Christmas trees that can be seen, and the several direct mentions of the holiday, such as Clint in the trailer’s final shot saying dejectedly, “this is some Christmas.”

So, what is this show about? Before this trailer we had very little information on that topic. But we did have one thing. The post-credits scene for Marvel’s Black Widow released in July features Natasha’s ‘sister’ Yelena Belova post-Endgame visiting Nat’s grave. After a moment we hear a vibe-killing blow of a nose. That nose blow belongs to Val, or “Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Actually, it’s Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. I know it’s hard, but I don’t like to repeat myself, so you can just call me Val. But don’t call me Val, just keep it in your head.” Val first showed up in Marvel’s second Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier where she very mysteriously said that quote and then recruited John Walker to be a correspondent to her, now that he was disowned by the governments of the world. She said she needed him because, “Things are about to get weird. So when they do, we’re not gonna need a Captain America. We’re gonna need… a U.S. Agent.” 

In Black Widow, Val asks Yelena, whom she apparently recruited to her “super secret boyband” sometime between when Black Widow takes place (right before Avengers: Infinity War) and the end of Avengers: Endgame. If she wants to “kill the man responsible for (her) sister’s death” and shows Yelena a picture of Clint on a tablet. So, it’s safe to say that we’ll see Yelena in this series and hopefully even find out what the deal is with Val. 

Small side note: Black Widow was not only shot, but supposed to come out before TFATWS, so we should have met Val in the movie before finding out her name and hearing a bit more about her in her conversation with John Walker.

Other than that, we don’t have much information on the show’s plot. We do know that it will deal with Clint reliving his dark period during the ‘blip’ when he lost his entire family and became ‘Ronan’. We also know he’ll be teaming up with the cosplaying young-archer prodigy Kate Bishop, to teach her the ins and outs of being an Avenger-level archer. Possibly training her for a young-Avengers team or to be his successor.

It’s safe to say that whatever this series may bring, it promises to get us all in the holiday spirit, especially as the first episode comes out on Disney+ on November 24th. Also, there’s a dog, so that’s always a plus.