Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is an unparalleled marksman, but the target kept changing for the Disney+ Hawkeye series.

Released in 2021, the Avenger got his own six-episode show, in which he tries to get home to his family in time for Christmas while dealing with the fallout of his time as the vengeful Ronin. The series also introduces Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox), Jack Duquense/Swordsman (Tony Dalton) and features the return of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). While it was well-received, Hawkeye was almost a darker show that focused heavily on Clint’s despair during his time as Ronin instead of a more “playful” Christmas story set in New York.

On The Watch podcast, Hawkeye writer Andrew Guest reveals that this wasn’t the only significant change, as he was brought in to “rewrite the whole thing” a week and a half before production began. After Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo put Guest in contact with producer Trinh Tran, “she calls me three minutes later. She says, ‘I’m going to send you six one-hour episodes. I want to meet tomorrow to talk about it. We start shooting in New York in a week and a half, and we want to rewrite the whole thing.’”

Guest explains that “I came in towards the end. I mean, they had had a writer’s room. They had rewritten [the show] after that writer’s room a couple of times. I was literally the last call they could make to anybody…” Even though Hawkeye‘s story was drastically evolving at Marvel, “I think there is this belief that we can ‘Fix it as we go.’ And that was very much the case with Hawkeye.” Check out Guest’s additional comments about how the story changed below:

You know, Hailee Steinfeld’s character was written too young. The dynamic between her and Jeremy [Renner] wasn’t there. There was a lot of extra twists and turns that were sort of gumming up the works.

The last-minute changes made to Kate, her dynamic with Clint, and taking out certain plot twists appear to have been the right call based on the 92% critics’ score and 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Five years later, Hawkeye is still widely regarded as one of the better Marvel Cinematic Universe shows. It also paved the way for the Echo series and Daredevil: Born Again, both of which prominently feature Fisk. As for Kate, she returned in The Marvels‘ post-credits scene, which sees Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel recruiting her for a new superhero team, which seemingly sets up a Young Avengers movie or show.

Despite some “extra twists and turns” being altered, the final version of Hawkeye released on Disney+ still contains plenty of plot twists. They include Fisk’s appearance and role as the overarching villain, Kate’s mother, Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga), working with him, and Fisk lying to Maya about who was truly responsible for the death of her father, William Lopez (Zahn McClarnon).

While Hawkeye season 2 never panned out, Guest’s writing led to another MCU show – Wonder Man. He was the showrunner and co-created the series with Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton. Just as with Hawkeye, reviews for Wonder Man have also been stellar, with many praising the series for being a refreshing and grounded story amid superhero fatigue. The critics’ score is 91% and the audience score is 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.