Hawkeye: Rogers The Musical Writers Explain Why Ant-Man Was Included

Writers of Rogers: The Musical from Hawkeye explain why Ant-Man was included in the Broadway play’s recreation of the Battle of New York. Heavily inspired by Matt Fraction and David Aja’s comic, My Life As A Weapon, and written by Mad Men's Jonathan Igla (among others), Hawkeye follows Jeremy Renner’s titular archer and his superfan/protégée Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop. The show also stars Vera Farmiga, Linda Cardellini, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d'Arcy James, Alaqua Cox, and (reportedly) Florence Pugh as Black Widow’s Yelena Belova.

The first three episodes of the series are now streaming on Disney+. Hawkeye’s first episode picked up with Clint Barton in NYC with his children to see the Broadway play Rogers: The Musical about the life of Steve Rogers/Captain America. A portion in the play recreates the famous "Battle of New York" from 2012's The Avengers, featuring a song titled "Save The City”—which was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who are best known for their work on Hairspray. In the episode, Clint appears visibly bothered/annoyed by the play’s song, lyrics, and inaccuracies; in particular, its inclusion of Scott Lang/Ant-Man, who wasn’t even an Avenger back in 2012.

In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Shaiman and Wittman explained why Ant-Man was featured in their musical number despite not being a part of the Battle of New York. When asked if Marvel Studios had requirements for the song, the writers said that they did ask for Ant-Man’s inclusion. Read what they had to say below:

"Scott and I were writing lyrics. I was like, 'We have to get things like Tesseract into the song, and Chitauri, and shawarma," said Shaiman. "[Marvel] knew the situation," added Wittman. "They wanted to musicalize the battle of New York. They did ask that Ant-Man be included in it because they wanted something where Clint would sit in the audience and go, 'Wait, he wasn't there. Why is he in this show?' That's just an example of, to both of us, of their humor, their sly humor.”

“The main purpose of the song is for Clint to be kind of horrified at what he's seeing," continued Shaiman. "So we knew that we had to write, hopefully, a good, entertaining song, but it had to also be the kind of style of Broadway that would make someone who doesn't love Broadway musicals, not to mention someone who lived through what is being portrayed, just be kind of like, 'What this?' That was a perfect Marvel sense of humor, the fact that they wanted Ant-Man to be in it to show how usually people get these things wrong."

Hawkeye thanos was right graffiti subtle insult to rogers musical

Hawkeye does a fantastic job of addressing Clint’s headspace two years after the events of Avengers: Endgame and the death of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). During the scene in the theater, Hawkeye, less-than-impressed, turns off his hearing aid before seeing an actress portraying Black Widow and, then, a kid in the audience doing her impersonation his late best friend. This prompts Clint to leave the show and head to the restroom where he notices some graffiti on the urinal reading, "Thanos was right." All the audience gets from Clint in response is, "Hmm.” Like Clint, it would seem that whoever wrote that message didn’t enjoy Rogers: The Musical.

“Save The City” may not have sat well with Clint or his fellow restroom users but it has struck a chord with fans. That being said, Marvel has released the full song for their enjoyment. Shaiman and Wittman are currently working on a musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot and have assured fans it won’t have Ant-Man in it. As for other Ant-Man references, Hawkeye also shows off a Pym arrow, which Clint and Kate tactfully use against Echo (Cox) and the Tracksuit Mafia. On top of that, Hawkeye episode 3 teased the MCU debut of a beloved villain and sets audiences up for what’s sure to be a holly jolly second half.

More: Is Hawkeye's Kingpin The Same Version As Daredevil?

Source: ComicBook.com