Marvel Studios managed to avoid ruining the friendship between Black Widow and Hawkeye in the MCU, by ignoring one typical Hollywood mistake. As two of the original Avengers team, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton had a long journey in the MCU, leading up to the tragic events of Thor, respectively, and since then, the pair have been shown to have one of the strongest friendships in the MCU.
It took years for Marvel Studios to develop the friendship between Romanoff and Barton, after establishing that the pair knew each other well before the events of Hawkeye had recruited Black Widow into SHIELD, and revealing Romanoff's close bond with Barton's family. Luckily, through their entire adventure together in the MCU, Marvel Studios managed to avoid falling into a typical Hollywood trap with Black Widow and Hawkeye, which only helped to make their relationship even better.
The MCU Avoided The Worst Hawkeye & Black Widow Mistake
It's a huge cliché for Hollywood to constantly partner up their male and female leads in romantic relationships, seemingly avoiding the fact that these partnerships can simply be made up of platonic friendships. The fact that Marvel Studios always made it clear that the pair were nothing more than close friends worked in their favor, as it would have convoluted the Avengers' storylines had Black Widow and Hawkeye been romantically involved. This is even more palpable since Romanoff controversially saw a lot of objectification in her early MCU appearances, so transforming her into a badass warrior instead of simply someone's romantic obsession was the best choice for her character.
Avengers: Age of Ultron was the first perfect representation of Black Widow and Hawkeye's friendship, as the Avengers found themselves holed up in Barton's family home, and Romanoff is shown to already have a close relationship with his wife and children. The avoidance of a jealousy angle in these moments made the slightly slow-paced scenario feel much more natural and gave a deeper insight into Barton's life outside of SHIELD and the Avengers. This culminated in Romanoff sacrificing herself on Vormir in Avengers: Endgame, meaning Barton did lose that which he loved, proving that their platonic love for each other was just as strong as anything else.
Why Romance Would Have Ruined Clint & Natasha's Story
Adding a romantic angle into the relationship between Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton would have been a dire mistake for Marvel Studios, not only invalidating Barton's character as a family man, but also creating some potentially messy storylines within the Avengers themselves. As an example, the relationship between Sersi and Ikaris in Hawkeye in the MCU always made for some entertaining and comfortable moments, so Marvel Studios should be praised for not pushing it any further.
