Jeremy Renner Turned Down Hawkeye Season 2 Over Salary ‘Insult Offer’

Actor Jeremy Renner revealed that he turned down a second season of Marvel’s Hawkeye after receiving “an insult offer” from Disney’s “penny pinchers.”

“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 disclosed during an appearance on High Performance to promote his new book, My Next Breath: A Memoir.

Renner wondered if his near-fatal January 2023 accident – where he was crushed by his snow plow and broke over 30 bones, leaving him with 25% titanium in his body and a very long recovery period – played a factor in getting low-balled.

“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 made it clear, however, that the object of his ire is not Marvel Studios or even parent company Disney per se and that he would still like to reprise his role as the bow-slinging Avenger one day.

“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.”

“I still love the character. I’d still love to do it, but I had to defend myself,” Renner continued. “I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what I made the first season. So it’s all disheartening that that didn’t happen, but that’s fine. 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.”

Renner’s Hawkeye co-star Florence Pugh reprises her role as Yelena Belova in this weekend’s Thunderbolts.

Find out what Pugh told us about leaping off the second tallest building in the world for the film, how long its post-credits scene is and also be sure to read our Thunderbolts review.