In the sea of mediocrity that they have been serving up since Endgame, Marvel Studios has had a few bright spots. Daredevil: Born Again showed the right trajectory, and all the reports on Thunderbolts point to them having a winner. One other highlight was Hawkeye.
The streaming series on Disney+ was great fun, telling a coherent story and introducing new characters without sidelining the lead. Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) was a fine addition.
A follow-up has been discussed for a while, but it has failed to materialise. Delays were to be expected, given star Jeremy Renner’s horrific snowplough accident. Now it turns out that a second season was moving forward, but it now may not happen as Jeremy Renner is not returning.
The reason? Well… get a load of this! This was all revealed in an interview with High Performance:
“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.”
“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 at the insult offer. So we didn’t see eye to eye on it.”
So, Hawkeye is over forever?
“I still love the character. I’d still love to do it, but I I had to defend myself. I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what I made 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.”
Offering a man who has fought his way back from a life-threatening accident and battled through life-changing injuries half pay? However much you hate Disney accountants, it’s not enough.