Avengers: Infinity War Director Says There's A Good Reason For Missing Hawkeye

It's unlikely that many Marvel fans will feel shortchanged by the number of superheroes in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, but there have been a couple of notable absences from the trailers and posters so far. Ant-Man and Hawkeye are nowhere to be seen, and as was reported last month, the actor's names don't even feature on the latest poster. While we still don't know whether Ant-Man will appear, co-director Anthony Russo has spoken about Hawkeye's role in the movie.

Unsurprisingly, Russo didn't provide any specific details, but he did confirm that there was a reason we hadn't seen anything of actor Jeremy Renner yet. "All will be explained when people see the movie," he told Total Film (via Gamesradar). "It's all tied into the story."

This follows the quotes from Anthony Russo's co-directing brother Joe last month, in which he explained that the events of Captain America: Civil War--the last movie to feature Hawkeye--were important as to where we find the characters at the start of Infinity War.

"Hawkeye, coming out of Civil War, is in the same position that Cap and Falcon are at the end of that movie," he said. "[They] were on Cap's side coming out of the Civil War. Some made certain decisions and others made other decisions that led to different paths in them dealing with oversight in this movie in a different way. So Hawkeye's on his own journey in this movie."

Anthony Russo also revealed that we won't learn much about the back story of Infinity War's big villain Thanos. "We were considering showing [Thanos'] backstory," he said. "But ultimately felt it wasn't necessary for the movie." Nevertheless, the director did explain that the movie will be "told from Thanos' point of view," which is something the directors spoke about last year.

Earlier this week, the Russos released an appeal for fans not to spoil any of the movie's big surprises through a note they posted on Twitter. They said of the April 27 film not to "spoil it for others, the same way you wouldn't want it spoiled for you." Following this, Spider-Man actor Tom Holland released his own excellent response.