Hawkeye, which premiered November 24 on Disney+, picks up with the continuing story of the MCU two years after the universe-changing circumstances of Avengers: Endgame. Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is hoping to spend a quiet and uneventful Christmas with his family, but those plans get derailed quickly when his path crosses with that of Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), a skilled archer who has her own personal history with Hawkeye. The series also promises to follow up on the aftermath of the MCU film Black Widow, which saw Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) being mistakenly led to believe that Clint was responsible for Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) death on Vormir. The show also stars Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d'Arcy James, and Alaqua Cox, as well as Jolt the Golden Retriever as Lucky the Pizza Dog.

This week, Collider had the chance to chat with composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman, who brought the in-universe Rogers: The Musical to life on-screen in Hawkeye's first episode, "Never Meet Your Heroes." The song, "Save The City," was later released as a single after the show's premiere. Over the course of the interview, which you can both watch and read, the duo spoke about how they were first approached by Marvel head Kevin Feige, how they collaborated in writing the song over Zoom, and how the pandemic inspired the beginnings of "Save The City." They also spoke about how they got some big Broadway names (like Adam Pascal) to participate, their reaction to seeing the fan response from the first trailer, and whether they'd be willing to come back and write a full musical.

Collider: I feel like I should say congratulations. Is that the wrong thing to say?

SCOTT WITTMAN: That's a nice thing to say. I'm glad it made people happy.

MARC SHAIMAN: We're in show business, so we're used to hearing much worse things. So thank you.

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Image via Disney+

I want to start at the beginning of the process. When it came to figuring things out in terms of the song itself, did you kind of pitch it to Marvel or was it more that they approached you with, "This is the idea we want, how can you make it happen"?

WITTMAN: They came to us. Marc had met Kevin [Feige] at an event at the Academy Awards two years ago when we were nominated for Mary Poppins. And so he...

SHAIMAN: Mary Poppins Returns.

WITTMAN: Yes. Sorry. And he...

SHAIMAN: If [it was] Mary Poppins, we would be 97 years old.

WITTMAN: So they started sort of a relationship. And then Kevin... Somebody had pitched this to Kevin and he said, "That's a great idea." And the next thing you know, he thought, "I had the perfect guys to do it." So it all came out.

SHAIMAN: Yeah. And I do believe that they did think that it should be at the Battle of New York. Maybe I should have done some more research before the interviews to remind myself, but I don't think there were other scenarios. Like, "And then we chose." I think it was the Battle of New York. And that seemed just right for us, to create like an Act One closing. You could definitely imagine the curtain falling on the end. Although, the great ending that's there on the TV show now with the kind of jazz hands ending, it's a lot of fun. And Scott had the idea of starting the song, with the idea of "Save the City," that it's New Yorkers imploring the Avengers to come and help — because who else but the Avengers could deal with what was going on?

WITTMAN: And we were also in the middle of the worst part of the pandemic when New York was hit the hardest when we were writing it. So, that became the idea of... "Someone, please save the city" became part of that.

SHAIMAN: Yeah, it was that time when New Yorkers were opening their windows every night at 7:00 PM and banging pots and pans to say thank you to all the frontline workers. Did we actually write this whole song over Zoom? I can't remember.

WITTMAN: Yeah, we had to write it over Zoom.

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Image via Marvel Studios

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I was curious too if there had ever been a conversation about potentially setting the song somewhere else in the MCU, but Marc answered my question perfectly. I'm sure fans would've been curious if it had been more than one song, like seeing a potential First Avenger-set tune or something along those lines.

WITTMAN: Well, yeah. But Captain America is a very... He's got such a beautiful story because it goes back to the forties and things like that.

What was the process behind getting some big Broadway folks involved? Because Adam [Pascal]'s obviously singing pretty heavily on the track. Was that a little bit more of sneakily bringing people in, keeping everything under wraps?

WITTMAN: It was really just, "Who can sing it?"

SHAIMAN: Yeah. I can't sing. I find myself writing music that I can't sing.

WITTMAN: We wrote a verse in a chorus and then before we continued with the rest of the song, we wanted to make sure it was the right direction. So the only person who [we] could... vocally adapt to it was with...

SHAIMAN: Adam Pascal. I mean he came to mind, Adam. I met him, I think, once really in passing, but I texted our mutual friend Seth Rudetsky who had done a whole Broadway show with him. I said, "Can you give me Adam Pascal's phone number? I'm going to text him to see if... And can he belt a B flat or a B, and hang onto it?" And Seth was like, "Are you crazy? He can literally hit any note and hang onto it, with or without vibrato, whichever you want."

So I texted Adam Pascal out of the blue and said, "It's Marc and Scott. And they've asked us to write a song, that's basically like the Avengers musical. And would you..." And before I could even finish the question he just texted, "Yes." And he was at home as everyone was. And a lot of the singers or performers at that point had all gotten their own microphones at home to try to continue to work... as little or as much as was possible at the time.

So Adam, and then another friend named Ty Taylor, who I had only just sort of met, those are the first two guys I texted. The only guys I knew who could possibly hit all these notes and sing with that kind of theatrical rock and roll style. And they sang the whole song and demoed it. And those vocals that they recorded in their home are the vocals that are on your recording. They're even a little distorted here and there, but we didn't want to try to capture lightning in a bottle twice. We so loved what they had sung.

And luckily, they got to be in the actual number and the filming. There are a lot of other Broadway names who are only the voices of the Avengers — because of COVID, they couldn't bring a whole bunch of people. Flying people in was very... [they] just couldn't do it with everyone. So it's very old-school movie musical where the people on-screen singing, that's not really their voices. I don't want to crush anyone's bubble. Burst anyone's bubble. But it's phenomenal singers like Rory Donovan, Christopher Sieber, Derek Klena.

WITTMAN: Shayna Steele.

SHAIMAN: Shayna Steele, Bonnie Milligan. I mean, phenomenal singers, every single one of them. And we were also thrilled to be doing it, but we couldn't tell anybody. You know, half a year of hanging onto this. So it was so thrilling when they finally put the song... that little bit in that first trailer. And then to see the reaction of Marvel fans to it was just so thrilling. It was thrilling.

WITTMAN: Yeah. I got my favorite compliment I've ever gotten [which] was that somebody wrote, "It slaps." That's better than a rating in the New York Times.

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Image via Disney+

That's the modern-day equivalent, I think. I would love to know the thought process behind adding Ant-Man to the song for the musical. Was it just purely for the joke of, "He wasn't even there, but we're going to stick him in anyway"?

WITTMAN: Yeah. It makes Clint go, "Wait a second. I didn't get this right." But that was a Marvel request.

SHAIMAN: It's a perfect example of the sense of humor they have within the movies. And we also... Scott and I both knew that. I mean, that was the main point in the script, was that Clint is dragged to the musical of this Avengers musical. And that he is just rolling his eyes at it going, "Why am I here? And what is this? This really happened to me. And now they're singing and dancing and what's Ant-Man doing in this?" So, that was all part of the script. And we were more than happy to oblige. It's hysterical, that guy dancing as Ant-Man.

Are you both prepared for the possibility that this could become a full musical in real life? And if so, are you ready to come back and do the whole thing?

SHAIMAN: Yes, we are equal to the challenge. Yes. If only Kevin Feige was on social media, I'd say inundate him with requests. I mean, but a lot of people are saying it. So, you know, Marvel works in mysterious ways.

The first three episodes of Hawkeye are currently available to stream on Disney+, with new episodes premiering weekly every Wednesday.