Marvel films and TV shows are shrouded in so much secrecy that even the writers of MCU properties are kept in the dark about cameos, post-credits scenes and twists in other titles. And this can happen even if it involves the same character.
This was the case when the Hawkeye writers started to write Black Widow’s little sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) into the show. They didn’t know about the mid-credits scene in which Yelena is put on the trail of Clint Barton’s Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and also, the Black Widow writers didn’t know what they were setting the character up for.
Hawkeye showrunner Jonathan Igla had already lobbied for Yelena to be included in Hawkeye, before Kevin Feige told him about the tease at the end of Black Widow and this was information that he then had to keep from his team.
“There was a length of time where I wasn’t supposed to share it with the rest of the writing staff. There were a handful of things like that, which was challenging,” Igla told The Hollywood Reporter.
He continued; “I did my best. I like to think that I’m an honest broker and if somebody tells me not to share something, even if I think, ‘Well, the writing staff really needs to know this,’ then I’m just going to trust their process. … I kept it under my hat for a while.”
“They told me, ‘and then at the end, this is the target.’ And I was like, ‘What does that mean?” Black Widow screenwriter Eric Pearson told THR in July. “I was like, ‘Who am I screwing over? Something is going on! I don’t have an answer for this.’ I remember writing it and feeling super guilty [and thinking] I hope whatever writer is working on this next chapter is going to be OK with what I’ve done to them.”
The ramifications of that Black Widow mid-credits scene started to be felt in Hawkeye episode 4 but we don’t know yet how they will unravel. Stay tuned to find out!