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Jeremy Renner explains why he almost turned down the role of Hawkeye

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Jeremy Renner's Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, where he made a rather underwhelming cameo appearance in Thor for no other reason than to introduce Clint Barton to the masses before Hawkeye got plenty of screentime in The Avengers the following summer.

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This year marks the tenth anniversary of Jeremy Renner’s Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, where he made a rather underwhelming cameo appearance in Thor for no other reason than to introduce Clint Barton to the masses before Hawkeye got plenty of screentime in The Avengers the following summer.

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Of course, the archer’s arc in the all-star blockbuster left a lot to be desired, to the extent that Renner was vocally displeased with how his character was treated, but he’s still stuck around for the rest of the decade. At long last, the actor took top billing in his own project when Hawkeye premiered on Wednesday, and he’s been happy to explain why the Disney Plus exclusive works much better as a TV show than the movie it was originally developed as.

However, during an interview with Vanity Fair, Renner explained why he considered turning down the role of Hawkeye when it was first offered to him, and his reasoning was fairly sound at the time.

“I remember going in to talk with Kevin Feige and Lou D’Esposito, and they’d show me the Ultimates version of Hawkeye. Iron Man had come out, and I said, ‘I’m into what you guys are doing because I loved Iron Man. I like how you made Iron Man plausible’. So that’s where they wanted to go with Hawkeye. I’m like, ‘Great!’ You gotta kinda sign on for a bunch of Avengers films and potential Hawkeye films, kind of sign your life away. I’m like, ‘Wait, I might be 50 in tights?’.”

As fate would have it, Hawkeye came to Disney Plus with Renner now 50 years old, with the actor having hit the milestone in January of this year. Clearly he doesn’t mind slipping into the tights even after hitting the half-century mark, and he’s not done with the MCU yet by any stretch.