Bishop is depicted as a champion archer who grew up idolizing Avenger Clint Barton after he inadvertently saved her life during the Battle of New York.

[2][3] Kate Bishop was created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung for Young Avengers #1 (April 2005), and becomes a founding member of the titular team using Clint Barton's arrows as a weapon.

[5][6][7] Prior to this, as a teenager, she was assaulted in Central Park which led her to take up intense combat training and self-defense to heal from the trauma she felt afterwards.

[9][10][11] Ben Pearson of /Film found it that Bishop's comic interpretation made her out as being "a young, headstrong woman, out to make a name for herself and refusing to take shit from anyone",[12] and Renner relented that Bishop was "a better version of me and the sentiment of that is the fiber of what Hawkeye is, adding that he was delighted to shepherd an "amazing character" onscreen.

[13][14] Paul Tassi of Forbes stated that Marvel was "betting big" on Bishop's involvement in the MCU with her being a "force for them, perhaps bigger than [Renner's Barton] Hawkeye himself ever was.

"[15] In April 2019, early reports were released indicating plans for a Disney+ Hawkeye property featuring Barton "passing the torch" to Bishop,[16] which was later officially announced at San Diego Comic-Con in the following July.

[17] By early September 2019, Hailee Steinfeld had been offered the role of Kate Bishop,[18] but had not yet signed on for the series a month later.

[21][22] Finn Jones, who played Danny Rand / Iron Fist in prior Marvel Television properties and co-starred alongside Steinfeld in season 2 of Dickinson encouraged her to take the role, believing that she should "'do it, definitely.

[24] Renner took it upon himself to teach Steinfeld the avenues of a big-budget Marvel production and how the world of superheroes translates into real-life set pieces, feeling it was his role to introduce her to the MCU.

[32] She would later call Bishop "a character that I would have loved to have had growing up — somebody who is completely ambitious, driven and disciplined, and takes it upon herself to do whatever it is she has to do to achieve her goals.

In changing Bishop's backstory and events surrounding her initial meeting with Barton, Steinfeld said that " [This version of] Kate, as a young woman growing up in New York City, can walk down the street and own herself and her strength.

"[37] Touching on the choice to include the show's opening sequence where Bishop watches Barton during the Battle of New York, Igla stated: "I wanted to pair the death of Kate's father with her seeing Hawkeye.

Of their back-and-forth relationship, TVLine called it full of "action and punchy tête-à-têtes" with extra notice of its similarity to the Aja and Fraction Hawkeye run that partially inspired the show.

"[41] After the realization that Eleanor was working with Kingpin and ordered Barton's assassination at the hands of Yelena Belova, Steinfeld called Bishop's state "completely broken and confused and absolutely lost.

After all the partner talk and jokes that have been thrown around, now she has the opportunity to step up to the plate [and] come to her senses as quickly as she possibly can after learning this information and puts her head down and does what she has to do.

After witnessing him fighting against the Chitauri troops during the Battle of New York, she quickly began to idolize him just as Eleanor found her and they escaped from the collapsing house.

At his funeral, Bishop decided to follow her idol's footsteps and vowed to become a hero like Barton, which led to her training in archery, fencing, gymnastics and martial arts.

In 2024, on her last day at college before Christmas break, she and her friends go to the old Stane Tower where she shoots her arrows at it, accidentally destroying the bell.

During the gala, she goes outside and meets a golden retriever, who she later names Lucky, and discovers an underground black market auction selling remnants from the destroyed Avengers Compound with Jack and his uncle Armand Duquesne III in attendance.

Bishop then witnesses the Tracksuit Mafia attack the auction and to hide her identity, dons the Ronin suit.

[44] Barton and Bishop are confronted by Maya Lopez, the Mafia's boss who is seeking revenge for the murder of her father at the hands of Ronin.

Also that night, Bishop deduces that Barton is Ronin, but quickly forgives him when she realizes the pain he felt after losing his family during the Blip.

tablet, revealing that she is forming a team of young heroes, mentioning Cassie Lang, and asks Bishop to join.

In this American frontier-themed universe, Kate Bishop was not an archer, never met Clint Barton, never adopted Lucky, and did not live in New York City.

After defeating the men in the saloon, she and Shang-Chi discovered a destroyed town and rescued a Chinese boy who told them about a mysterious train and asked to join them.

When the train arrived at the Hood's location, Bishop was instructed to stay inside and became enthralled by Burch's hypnotic watch.

Initial reception for Hawkeye's first two episodes included heavy praise towards Steinfeld's portrayal of Bishop, about how she "[brought] the humor and the determination to her character"[48] with comments from critics ranging from saying that there is "no chance fans don't immediately fall in love with her character" by Steve Weintraub from Collider to other varied comments saying that "Eager Kate's dynamic with grumpy Clint is especially great" and her "energized" performance.

"[52] Matt Purslow from IGN, in a review for Hawkeye's first two episodes, said that Bishop is "a delightfully energetic force who runs before she can walk.

He said that Bishop "steals the show — Steinfeld['s performance is] a magnetic joy — but her junior hero also fires significantly more arrows over the premiere, both physically and metaphorically" while taking note of the strong Barton-Bishop dynamic.