For the most part, the longer you play an important character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the more leeway and creative input you get in terms of building or expanding a performance. Unless of course your name is Robert Downey Jr., in which case you get handed almost free rein to do pretty much whatever you want.
Tom Holland recently revealed that he’s now in a position where he can speak up and have the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home changed because it wasn’t working for him, while Chris Hemsworth was one of the main driving forces behind Thor’s complete overhaul and subsequent reinvention in Ragnarok.
We can now officially add Jeremy Renner to that list, after Hawkeye producer Trinh Tran admitted to Murphy’s Multiverse that the actor would sit in with the writers as the series began to take shape, offering his in-depth and expert knowledge on Clint Barton.
“We brought Jeremy Renner into the writer’s room. Out of everybody who knows Clint Barton, he’s the one to ask those questions because he’s played the character for an entire decade. We wanted him to get involved and get an understanding of how he feels about the character in this story. We gave him the broad strokes of the direction we had in mind and asked how he would react in certain scenarios. That was tremendously helpful.”
Having been part of the MCU for ten years, it makes sense for Renner to have a significant input on how Hawkeye is portrayed, especially when it’s his first time ascending to leading man status after a decade in a strictly supporting capacity. The early reactions to the show have been strong, and you can bet the 50 year-old would have found a new lease of life being the center of attention for a change.
