According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jeremy Renner (Mayor of Kingstown, The Avengers) opens up on why he shot down returning for second season of Disney+’s Hawkeye. Renner states that he was only offered half of his original season one salary by “the penny pinchers” at Disney. He claims that this decision happened right after his 2023 snowplow accident, which nearly cost him his life.
Hawkeye follows the story of Clint Barton, played by Renner, who tries to get his family together for Christmas with the help of Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld (Sinners, True Grit). This seems simple enough until Barton’s past threatens to derail them from getting Barton to his family for the holidays.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Renner spoke with the High Performance sports podcast and said, “They asked me to do season two, and they offered me half the money. I’m like, wow, it’s going to take me twice the amount of work for half the amount of money — eight months of my time, essentially, and you 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?’ Is that why want to pay me half of what I made on the first season?”
Renner continued, “And this is not Marvel. My juice is like this Disney — not even really Disney, it’s just the penny pinchers, the accountants. I told him to go fly a kite at the insult offer. And so we didn’t see eye to eye on it, sadly. I still love the character, I would still love to do it, but I had to defend myself. I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what you paid me the first season. So it’s a little disheartening that didn’t happen, but that’s fine. I’m happy to let that go, because my body’s probably thanking me that I’m not doing that right now.”
The first season of Hawkeye is available to stream on Disney+.