When you’re watching Marvel and Disney+’s Hawkeye, one thing is certain: The show loves to give us grumpy Clint Barton, and Kate Bishop is a ray of sunshine. But also, the show has a very distinct holiday feel, and it isn’t the feel-good Christmas movies we’re used to. It’s more in the same vein as Die Hard and Home Alone, two Christmas movies that I would dare to call “Christmas Action Flicks.”

Talking with Yahoo! ahead of the show’s premiere, the producers and cast of Hawkeye revealed that that feeling was intentional, and everyone seemed excited to have the show set during the holiday season—especially with New York City as a backdrop.

The Christmas of it all

“We wanted to figure out a way to set it apart from all the series that have come out, and all the series that are coming out [in the future],” executive producer Trinh Tran told Yahoo! ahead of the premiere. “And we love the holidays. We love holiday events. And other than Iron Man 3, we haven’t really [dove] into that area. And out of all the characters, Clint Barton made the most sense. He is one of the few Avengers with the family, with kids. Family is central to him, and especially after Endgame where he lost his family [to Thanos’s snap], took on a different persona for five years, and then got his family back. He’s lost all this time, yet then again, he [gets stuck] on this mission where there’s a ticking clock of, is he going to get home in time to spend the holidays?”

You know what that sounds like? That’s right: John McClane’s struggle to spend Christmas with his daughter in Die Hard (a Christmas movie), which Tran says is true. “There’s definitely that style in there,” Tran said but also explained that the show connects to another Christmas classic, as well: Home Alone.

“There’s Home Alone, that I really love as well, too. Die Hard obviously has the action, has that character. So we looked at a ton of them. We looked at different Christmas music as well, too. But most importantly was also, ‘How do we integrate it and maintain that feeling that we’re after in all the projects that we have created?’”

Even Kate Bishop star Hailee Steinfeld was excited about the Christmastime setting.

“The fact that this takes place during the holiday time, it’s beautiful and wonderful and lovely and heartfelt and emotional,” said Steinfeld. “But it’s also complicated and there’s a lot of layers and a lot of depth, and a lot that can go wrong, a lot that does go wrong. … But I love that that’s the backdrop of our show and plays such a huge part of it.”

The show does have a particular feel to it that reflects more of Die Hard than Home Alone to me, but it is still that idea of action and comedy mixed with the holidays that just works so well. And with the banter back and forth between Clint and Kate, I feel like it is only going to keep growing.

Hawkeye dropped its first two episodes today on Disney+, and it’s a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season!

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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