The first two episodes of Hawkeye arrived on Disney+ earlier today, and while we have lots to discuss, there's one character we definitely need to talk about. Played by Tony Dalton, Jack Duquesne is introduced as Eleanor Bishop's fiance, but we later learn that there's more to him than meets the eye.
Before we get to that, some background: in the comic books, Jacques Duquesne was a soldier of fortune during Vietnam who later become a circus performer with a special interest in blades. That's how he earned the Swordsman moniker, and a young Clint Barton later became Duquesne's protege before learning that he was really a crook. With that, the villain fled and left the youngster for dead, but they'd cross paths years later when Swordsman attempted to infiltrate The Avengers.
Ultimately, he'd die at the hands of Kang the Conqueror who was attempting to protect Mantis, and a resurrection would follow. That's looking a little too far ahead, though, so let's get back to Hawkeye.
This take on the character definitely has a special interest in swords and even steals Ronin's blade from that black-market auction. Later, Jack proves himself more skilled with the weapons than he initially lets on during a fencing exhibition with Kate Bishop, while the series definitely wants us to believe that he may have been responsible for killing his uncle, Armand Duquesne.
In the comic books, Armand was his father, but it was one of his servants who murdered him. We have a feeling Eleanor might have something to do with the killing and Jack is a Red Herring; despite that, it's clear the stage is being set for him to potentially become a new version of Swordsman.
What that will look like remains to be seen, but this feels like a whole new origin story for the character. Clips from future episodes of Hawkeye have indicated that he doesn't know Clint, but it's certainly possible there's some sort of shared history there. For now, we'll have to wait and see.
Here's hoping Swordsman becomes a major player in the MCU from this point on, though...