Hawkeye Episode 2 may confirm a huge theory about the Avengers 5 villain
When will we find out who owns Avengers Tower?
The first two episodes of Marvel’s Hawkeye are practically brimming with Easter eggs. From a full-blown musical rendition of the Battle of New York to a sly reference to an obscure Marvel Comics character, the Disney+ series is already giving fans plenty of hints and homages to chew on while they wait for its third episode to drop next week.
Hawkeye’s second episode also goes out of its way to reference one ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe mystery, which could end up paying off in a major way.
We are, of course, talking about the mystery of Avengers Tower.
Avengers Tower, No More — In Hawkeye Episode 2, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) takes Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) to a convenience store for medical supplies. While there, Kate asks Clint if they’re going to use Avengers Tower as a safe house until the Tracksuit Mafia — which tracked Kate to her apartment in the episode’s opening minutes — has been dealt with.
Much to Kate’s disappointment, Clint tells her that they can’t go to Avengers Tower because Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) sold it “years ago.” On its own, the line works as a way for Hawkeye to further dispel Kate of her Avengers fantasies. However, Clint mentioning the sale of Avengers Tower also forces us to, once again, ask a pretty pressing question.
Who even owns Avengers Tower?
Avengers Tower, as seen in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
New Owner in Town — As was revealed in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony Stark sold Avengers Tower back in 2016. But while there have been references to the building since then, Marvel fans still don’t know who ended up buying it. However, Hawkeye Episode 2’s mention of the location seems to imply that Marvel Studios, at the very least, wants to remind fans of the sale.
Now, that could just be because the studio doesn’t want casual viewers asking questions about the building anymore.
What’s more likely, though, is that there are a number of different villains that Marvel could introduce as the new owner of Avengers Tower. These include Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), a well-connected Marvel Comics villain rumored to have a secret role in Hawkeye. Alternately, Marvel could use the tower’s sale as an excuse to introduce Norman Osborn and OsCorp, especially with Willem Dafoe’s version of the Green Goblin set to appear this year in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
If neither of those possibilities pan out, the studio could also use Avengers Tower to continue setting up its Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) storyline, revealing that Mr. Gryphon is the tower’s new owner. In the comics, Gryphon is the CEO of a company known as Qeng Enterprises, but he also happens to be a variant of Kang the Conqueror who ends up trapped in the 21st century as a result of a glitch in the timestream.
Notably, Loki Episode 5 featured an alternate version of Avengers Tower that had Qeng Enterprises branding on it in place of Avengers or Stark Industries logos.
Qeng Enterprises Tower in Loki Episode 5.
The Inverse Analysis — There’s no telling what Marvel has up its sleeve with this Avengers Tower mystery, but after withholding the identity of the building’s new owner for over four years, any resolution better be worth the wait.
Fortunately, Marvel making someone like Mr. Gryphon or Wilson Fisk the tower’s new owner would be the kind of massive twist that would actually justify all the secrecy that has so far surrounded this particular plot thread.
Hawkeye is streaming now on Disney+.
