The Marvel Cinematic Universe is built on the reoccurring characters and storylines that make it feel like a consistent and thoroughly connected world. As such, fans are always excited to see their fan-favorite characters make a return. Unfortunately, it’s been revealed that one beloved Marvel actor actually turned down returning to the MCU over an offer for a lower salary.
The MCU is one of the biggest properties owned by Disney, so it’s no surprise that the cast members that help keep it afloat would feel like they should be appropriately compensated.
At the very least, they probably expect to be paid a consistent amount, but Disney is said to have offered this actor “half” of his salary from the first season of a Disney Plus series he starred in.
As shared in an interview with High Performance:
“They asked me to do Season 2, and they offered me half the money,” actor Jeremy Renner shared regarding the Disney Plus series Hawkeye.
“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,” Renner continued.
As fans know, following the release of the first season of Hawkeye, Renner was seriously injured in a snow plow accident. Fortunately, Renner has since recovered, but he was in critical condition when the incident first occurred. Now Renner hints with a bit of dark humor that it could be a reason for the studio’s lowball offer:
“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.”
According to Renner, the lowball offer wasn’t the result of Marvel Studios, and he doesn’t even feel like it’s Disney to blame either. Instead, Renner blames “the penny pinchers” and “the accountants” for coming up with such a low number.
“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,” he explained.
For those who hope to see him return as Hawkeye, however, the door is not closed. In fact, Renner emphasizes that he didn’t even ask for more money, he simply wanted to be paid the same salary from the first season of the MCU Disney Plus series. As such, we could see him make a comeback sooner or later:
“Sadly, 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.”
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for more news regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe and any other updates regarding actor Jeremy Renner as we have them. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to return for a second season of the MCU series Hawkeye due to the low salary offer, but hopefully we’ll still have plenty of other roles to look forward to from Renner.