Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner appears to be teasing a long-awaited return to the MCU, as a final round of Avengers: Doomsday reshoots reportedly gets underway.
Renner posted what appeared to be a clear tease for his involvement via Instagram today, with a photo of his Hawkeye costume set to the “Hawkeye Theme” music.
The timing of this post is very interesting, as it follows confirmation this week from M’Baku actor Winston Duke, who stated that “additional photography for Avengers: Doomsday” is now underway, per an interview with CNA.
Of course, Avengers: Doomsday is now just four months from launch — meaning that any additional material shot now has a just limited time to be worked into the production. But Marvel seems to have planned for this situation, with filming essentially tacked on to the start of filming for 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, which is expected to begin its own production shoot in September.
Indeed, it’s likely that any additional work on Doomsday at this stage will be for shorter scenes or smaller moments, rather than any major alterations to Doomsday’s plot. Comments from Marvel tipster Daniel Richtman, who has a decent track record reporting MCU leaks, suggest that this filming will be used to “add a lot of cameos” — of which OG Avenger Hawkeye is presumably one.
After appearances in numerous MCU films, audiences last saw Renner as Hawkeye in the enjoyable Disney+ TV series of the same name, where he mentored Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop and saved the day just in time for Christmas. Since then, Renner has been recovering from injuries sustained during his serious snowplough accident in January 2023, and said he had turned down a subsequent offer to return for a second season of Hawkeye due to a disagreement with Disney over pay.
“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,” Renner claimed.
“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.’ 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.”
Thankfully, Renner suggested he was still open to appearing as Hawkeye again, just not in those circumstances. And now, it seems, we may get one more appearance from the Avengers’ best archer, at least.
Avengers: Doomsday is finally set to arrive in theaters on December 18, and even without Renner and the addition of further cameos, boasts one of the most stacked movie casts of all time. Fan interest and excitement for Avengers: Doomsday has been strong, with ticket pre-sales shifting faster than those for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Looking for more ways to get ready? Despite saying that Avengers: Doomsday would reset the MCU to ‘Phase Zero’, Marvel has released a watchlist of 15 movies and TV shows you should watch before Avengers: Doomsday rolls around.
Images credit: Marvel, Jeremy Renner/Instagram
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
