Jeremy Renner Says Marvel Tried to Cut His Salary in Half for ‘Hawkeye’ Season 2

Jeremy Renner accused Marvel Studios of making a lowball offer to renew his Disney+ show Hawkeye for a second season.

“They asked me to do season 2 and they offered me half the money,” he explained on the Thursday, May 1, episode of the “High Performance” podcast. “I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s going to take me twice the amount of work for half the amount of money.’”

Renner, 54, conceded that he would have physical limitations filming an action-heavy show like Hawkeye due to life-changing injuries he sustained after being crushed by a 14,000-pound snow plow in January 2023. The Avengers star wrote in his memoir My Next Breath that more than 30 bones in his body were broken in the accident.

In light of his injuries, Renner said he simply wasn’t willing to take a drastic pay cut from Marvel Studios.

“I’m sorry, why? Do 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 vented in his latest interview.

Renner said he didn’t personally blame Marvel or Disney as a whole for the lowball offer, instead singling out the “penny pinchers” who decide on financial arrangements.

“I told them to go fly a kite. I mean, just at the insulting offer,” he quipped. “We didn’t see eye to eye on it, sadly.”

The actor stressed that he still “loves the character” of Hawkeye and “would still love” to bring his Disney+ show back somehow, but he couldn’t agree to what Marvel was offering.

“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. 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, for that [decision].”

Marvel’s failure to come to an agreement with Renner is particularly surprising since the actor has been a key component of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since its early years. Renner debuted as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) in 2011’s Thor and went on to feature in all four previous Avengers movies. The first season of the Disney+ show aired in late 2021 and showed Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop taking over the mantle of Hawkeye.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Renner’s name was missing when Marvel announced the cast for its upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie, which will feature Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Tom Hiddleston and Robert Downey Jr., among many other returning MCU stars.

As for Renner’s health, the actor shed light on the aftermath of his horrendous snow plow accident in his memoir. He even shared a moment-by-moment recollection of how close he came to death while waiting for rescue workers.

“As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired,” Renner wrote in My Next Breath. “After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour … that’s when I died.”

Thankfully, Renner was saved before any further tragedy could occur. Renner later recalled being given “a combination of opioids for pain and benzos for sleep,” though he eventually had to be “handcuffed” to his hospital bed because he was so anxious to be released.