Lucky The Pizza Dog: Who Is The Beloved ‘Hawkeye’ Hero?

With the series finale of Marvel’s “Hawkeye” quickly approaching, fans want to know what is going to happen to Lucky the Pizza Dog.

In the comics, Lucky is owned by Ivan Banionis of the Tracksuit Mafia, when his name is Arrow. Arrow is horribly mistreated and neglected, so Clint Barton shows him some kindness by offering him a slice of pizza.

When Barton ends up getting attacked by the Tracksuit Mafia, Lucky quickly comes to his defense, although he’s horribly injured in the process. Barton immediately rushes to an emergency vet, who helps the pup, which Clint dubs Lucky the Pizza Dog. His canine sidekick makes an almost full recovery, except for the use of his left eye.

Lucky becomes Clint’s faithful companion before he later moves to Los Angeles with Kate Bishop. Although things played out a bit differently on the Disney+ series, fans still fell in love with Lucky.

Although plenty of fans love Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, and Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld, it’s really Lucky the Pizza Dog, played by dog actor Jolt, that has really captured the hearts of fans.

“Hawkeye” executive producer Trinh Tranrevealed that “We had several dogs; we had photos and we put the dogs on tape in terms of what they can do. We went on from there, trying to really figure out which is the best dog to play Pizza Dog. And Jolt, our amazing dog on set, was cast for it.”

Tran also explained that the team actually spent a good deal of time deliberating on how to introduce Lucky to fans.

“It was a matter of how do we do it in an organic way that makes sense,” she explained. “So it doesn’t feel like a dog all of a sudden just appeared in the storyline and how did that happen? It ties into how the dog encounters Kate and shows her nature of wanting to be a hero, and this was a good deed that she did in order to rescue him.”

Both Renner and Steinfeld fell in love with Jolt while she was filming on set. It should be noted that Jolt still does have two eyes: her left eye is only removed through CGI for the show. However, both actors have commented on Jolt’s one weakness: squirrels.

“The minute I knew Pizza Dog was as much a part of this show as he is, I was very excited,” Steinfeld explained. “It was definitely a challenge; the dog is unbelievably well-trained — do not get me wrong — but it is a dog. When it sees a squirrel, it wants to have a moment with the squirrel.”

Still, episode three director Katie Ellwood admitted that they took every moment they could to give the Golden Retriever a moment in the spotlight.

“Every opportunity we could get Lucky in a scene, we would,” Ellwood revealed. “Lucky was great, and not only on screen. Off-screen Lucky was great too because you know, there are situations where we're running out of time or it's all a little bit tense and it's just like, stare at the dog! Stare at the dog! So it was joyful.”

The season finale of “Hawkeye” will be available to stream on Wednesday, December 22, on Disney+.