See the cast of fictional Rogers: The Musical perform 'Save the City' at Marvel's D23 presentation

Emlyn Travis
·2 min read

We could watch this all day.

Marvel fans were treated to a surprise real-life performance of Rogers: The Musical — the fictional Broadway show that Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) himself caught a performance of during the first episode of Disney+'s Hawkeye — at the opening of the franchise's panel presentation at the D23 Expo on Saturday.

Dressed in their best Avengers ensembles, a crew of actors assembled onstage to perform the fictional musical's track "Save the City." Written by songwriting duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the upbeat track hilariously reimagines the Avengers' battle with the Chitauri at the end of the 2012 film.

"We'll conquer the Chitauri," Black Widow sang. Then, Iron Man rubbed his stomach and cheekily added, "And get shawarma when we're done!"

Last December, Shaiman and Wittman sat down with EW to discuss "Save the City" and how they created an uplifting pop song that would simultaneously inspire audiences and put Renner's character on edge. In the episode, after watching the performance (in which they lovingly deem Hawkeye "like a really nice guy"), Barton immediately bolts for the exit.

"It was a fine line to walk. We knew that we had to write a good song, an entertaining song, something you'd hopefully enjoy," Shaiman said at the time, "but it also had to make Clint roll his eyes and think, 'What is this?'"

Wittman added, "It's important for the Hawkeye character to watch that event that was such a seminal part of his life and feel slightly uncomfortable like, 'what have they done to my world?'"

And, the pair already had a few ideas for a full-length Marvel musical too, especially surrounding Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).

"The fact that he exists in the '40s as well would allow us to write a whole lot of different genres, so the whole Marvel story would take place over decades," Shaiman shared. "It would be a thrill to get to do that. But for now we're just extremely excited about the way the show came out."

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