Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner recently disclosed that an "insult offer" prevented Hawkeye Season 2 from happening under his watch. Renner starred as Clint Barton alongside Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop in the beloved Hawkeye Season 1 on Disney+; however, word on any potential follow-up since then has been relatively quiet.
After years of speculation, longtime MCU veteran Jeremy Renner pulled the curtain back on the conversations he has had about doing a potential second season of Disney+'s Hawkeye series. He revealed that it was ultimately money that stopped a second batch of episodes from happening but remains hopeful that it could, at some point, be explored again.
"They asked me to do a Season 2," the Clint Barton actor told High Performance in a recent interview, divulging that he decided against doing it because he was offered "half the money" of Season 1:
"They asked me to do a Season 2, and they offered me half the money. And I am like, 'Wow, that is going to take me twice the amount of work, for half the amount of money. And eight months of my time, and 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? Is that why you want to pay me half of what I made on the first season?' And this is not Marvel, this is just Disney, not even Disney, it is just the penny pinchers, the accountants."
He said that upon hearing that, he told the team at Marvel and Disney to "go fly a kite," calling the offer an "insult." Despite this, Renner still has "love" for the Hawkeye character, and "we will see" about where Hawkeye goes in the MCU's future:
"I told them, 'Go fly a kite' at just the insult offer. And so we did not see eye to eye on that, sadly. I still love the character, I 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 I made the first season. So, it is 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 time and time again that I'm not doing it right now. But we will see."
Hawkeye aired on Disney+ from November 24 to December 22, 2021, telling a holiday-themed superhero story as it loosely adapted the beloved Matt Fraction Hawkeye comic book run from 2012.
The series followed Renner as longtime MCU hero Clint Barton/Hawkeye, taking on a protege of sorts in the form of Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop, who, with their combined powers, attempted to thwart the plans of the dastardly Track Suit Mafia.
Where Does Hawkeye Season 3 Stand?
With Jeremy Renner seemingly no longer on the Hawkeye train, Season 2 of the hit MCU series remains in jeopardy.
Since the release of the show's heralded first season in 2021, fans have been itching to know more about any potential follow-up.
Characters from the show have popped up here and there in the MCU, with the likes of Kate Bishop, Wilson Fisk, and Echo all using their Hawkeye appearances as springboards into fruitful Marvel Studios futures, but the show itself has remained off the air with no promise of more episodes.
In late 2024, it was reported that three years after the fact, a Hawkeye Season 2 was in the works at Marvel Studios, but nothing official about the project has yet been disclosed by Marvel proper.
Since then, fans have heard whispers about potential release dates (said to be coming sometime in late 2026) and a new villain rumored to burst onto the scene in the second season, yet an announcement remained under lock and key.
It is unclear if Renner's comments about the second season relate to this most recent attempt at a second batch of episodes, but if they do, then Marvel Studios will have to get creative as it loses one of the series' biggest stars.
