The Avengers Had Jeremy Renner Begging Marvel To Kill Off Hawkeye
Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was always sort of a standout in the Avengers. It wasn't always in the best way. Sure, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) didn't have powers either, but he did have his Iron Man suit and a whole lot of money. The unpowered Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) had intense (and cruel) training as an assassin. Clint had ... skill with a weapon that really hit its peak usage in Europe in the 16 century. Of course, he's amazing at archery, and the trick arrows he's got are pretty darn useful. Still, it sort of left him as the least-remembered Avenger, if not forgotten completely.
I will freely admit that Hawkeye was my least favorite Avenger until I watched the 2021 Disney+ "Hawkeye" series. Now I love him, and he's my favorite, and that may be the single Marvel Cinematic Universe series that I'd rewatch. I love him, his family, his new protege Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and his whole bow and arrow thing. Still, back in 2012 when "Marvel's The Avengers" hit theaters, he was worse than useless, running around all brainwashed by Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) use of the Tesseract on him. As it turns out, Renner felt the same way during that film and was sort of begging Marvel to kill off his character, according to a Q&A at the London Film and Comic Con in 2016 (via The Independent).
Renner gave Marvel the option to kick him out
Renner, who miraculously survived being run over by his snowplow on New Year's Day 2023 like a goddamned real-life superhero, told the crowd at the event that he'd been bored by playing "Loki's minion" in the 2012 film and found a way to let the powers that be know. His technique? He gave them some interesting alternate takes that could provide Renner a way out of playing the role. He said:
"I just had a heart attack in every scene. I'd just be walking with Scarlett Johansson and just be like 'Ugh!' and they said 'What are you doing man?' I said, 'I'm giving you an option, if you just want to kick me out of this movie. Just you know, at any given moment, if you wanna kill me off, daddy's gonna be having a heart attack.'"
You have to admit, that's pretty funny, and back then, fans probably wouldn't have argued. Now, however, most of us would put up a big stink. So would Renner, who expressed more happiness with the role in 2016, which was shortly after the release of "Captain America: Civil War," but still years away from his Disney+ series. He said, "I don't really want him to die now. I really got to explore him a lot, and I can't wait to explore him more, and there' some really cool ideas coming up. Really cool ideas. Great deaths! Amazing ways to die." He's funny, that Jeremy Renner. Just keep him there for a while, okay, Marvel? We just got him back in real life.
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