Jeremy Renner Says Disney Offered Him Half His Hawkeye Wage for Season 2

If any recent Disney+ Marvel show seemed poised to get a second season, it was Hawkeye. It starred one of the original Avengers, played by Jeremy Renner; set up a new, younger version of the hero in Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop; and told a story featuring characters that have since come back in other places like Kingpin, Yelena, Echo, and others.

Well, according to Renner he was asked to do a second season, but was only offered half of what he made for the first season, so he turned it down. “They asked me to do a season two, and they offered me half the money,” Renner said on the High Performance podcast. “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,’” he continued, referring to his 2023 accident where he was run over by a Sno-Cat, suffering near life-ending injuries.

Renner quickly added that it wasn’t Marvel who did this, but accountants at Disney. “This is not Marvel, mind you,” Renner said. “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, if we’re being honest, doesn’t add up. Disney is Marvel and accountants who work for Disney are representing Marvel. But the implication, it seems, is Renner doesn’t want to blame Marvel’s creative people, just the people who sign their checks.

io9 reached out to Disney for comment and an insider there disputed Renner’s claims, but failed to get into specifics. So this is certainly just his side of the story.

Renner’s hesitance to place the blame specifically on anyone is probably also because he says he would like to play Hawkeye in the future. “Sadly, I still love the character. I’d still love to do it, but I had to defend myself,” he said. “I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what I made the first season. So it’s a little 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.”

Here’s the clip:

So there you have it. As it stands now, it certainly seems like Hawkeye season two is not currently in the works. Which is a shame. We would’ve loved to see Renner continue to mentor Kate Bishop as she rises the ranks of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But maybe things will come together in the future.

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