Fans have been hopeful for Hawkeye season 2, but Jeremy Renner just shared a key reason why it's taking so long!
The MCU Disney+ shows have been a bit hit-and-miss. There have been huge successes like WandaVision, Daredevil: Born Again, and Loki, but also misfires such as Secret Invasion. That's why Hawkeye connected so well.
The six-episode series premiered in 2022 with Jeremy Renner back as Clint Barton aka ace archer Hawkeye. As fans remember, Clint lost his entire family in "The Blip" when Thanos snapped half the world away. He spent five years as the masked Ronin dispensing harsh justice on criminals.
In Avengers: Endgame, Clint had to see Black Widow sacrifice herself to help bring back everyone lost, including his family. Hawkeye had Clint handling the guilt over his actions. He then ran into Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who basically worshiped Clint since he saved her life during the alien invasion in the first Avengers film.
Clint and Kate worked together to uncover a criminal conspiracy, which also brought back Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) and introduced Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), who got her own spinoff, Echo. The series was hailed by fans for its action and the great banter between Clint and Kate.
While promoted as a limited series, there have been hopes for a second season to come. However, Renner just revealed a reason for the delay while taking a shot at Disney!
Why is Jeremy Renner not coming back to Hawkeye?
Renner has been a bit quiet for the obvious reason that he was nearly crushed to death when he was run over by a snowmobile on New Year's Day, 2023. It took over a year for him to physically recover, and only now is he getting back to work with films and the Paramount+ TV series Mayor of Kingstown.
Speaking to the High Performance Podcast, Renner revealed that a key problem with him returning as Clint is the shockingly low offer from Marvel/Disney.
"They asked me to do Season 2, and they offered me half the money. I'm like, 'Well, it's going to take me twice the amount of work for half the amount of money, and eight months of my time, essentially, to do it for half the amount'." I'm like, 'I'm sorry? Why? Did you think I'm only half the Jeremy because I got ran over? Maybe that's why you want to pay me half of what I made on the first season'."
Renner was quick to clarify that "This is not Marvel, mind you. This is like, just Disney. Not even really Disney, it's just the penny pinchers, the accountants. I told them to go fly a kite. I mean, just at the insult offer. So we didn't see eye to eye on it."
This doesn't mean Renner is done playing Hawkeye, as he loved the character. He pointed out that he never asked for a raise, just the same salary as the first season and Disney balked at that.
"I'm happy to let that go, because my body's probably thanking me, time and time again, that I'm not doing it right now. But we'll see."
This is a surprising move, as Renner's presence was a key reason to watch the show. It does seem Marvel wants to push Kate as a new Hawkeye and plans for her to join a "Young Avengers" style team. Thus, writing Clint off as retiring for good with his family seems a bit better than saddling him with another adventure.
Still, Disney not wanting to pay Renner the same amount as the first season smacks of a bad move. Even if he was slowed by the accident, it's Renner who made the character work, the least Disney could do was match his first season salary and let him give the season a shine with his presence.
There's always a chance Renner will return for the planned Avengers: Doomsday, which seems to have just about everyone else in the MCU at some point. That could close out Clint well and wash the stain of this out of everyone's mouths.
It's a bad look for Marvel and Disney not to pay a big MCU star his worth, and hopefully, it doesn't set some sort of bad trend.
Hawkeye streaming on Disney+.