Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be available for digital download on August 18. And its Blu Ray and DVD will hit on store shelves on September 9.
To help promote its home release, Cap screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed to SFX that Hawkeye was in one of the original script drafts but he was cut out due to his role being too small.
"There were actually drafts where we had Hawkeye in it, but he didn’t have enough to do and suddenly it seemed like we were giving him [the short end of the stick]. Hey, [Hawkeye is just] a cameo," Markus said.
"Natasha was doing a lot of that work for us," McFeely added.
Many fans will read this and be unhappy. Hawkeye has a much larger fan base than the casual Marvel fan may realize in both the comic book universe and Marvel Cinematic Universe. These same fans want the character to get much more screen time (and rightfully so). Joss Whedon has mentioned how Hawkeye will have a larger role (for the good guys this time) in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
But after Age of Ultron, then what? Where will Hawkeye show up again? Is he destined to only be a supporting role in Avengers films? Will he ever get a similar treatment that Black Widow has gotten —in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier — by having a strong supporting role in solo hero franchises?
So many questions about Hawkeye's future appearances in the MCU, and no answers for any of them right now.