Back in 2021, Marvel Studios released a brand new series on Disney+ with Jeremy Renner reprising his role of “Hawkeye”, giving him an opportunity to expand his character in his own series.

The series was set in post-blip New York City, where former Avenger Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. But when a threat from his past shows up, Hawkeye reluctantly teams up with Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old skilled archer and his biggest fan, to unravel a criminal conspiracy.

Since the first season of “Hawkeye” debuted on Disney+, fans have been wondering when we might get to see Hawkeye again, while Kate Bishop made a brief cameo in “The Marvels”, likely setting up a future “Young Avengers/Champions” movie or show.

During a recent interview with High Performance, Jeremy revealed that Marvel offered him a second season of “Hawkeye”, but that offer was for only half his salary from the first season of the Disney+ series. 

“They asked me to do Season 2, and they offered me half the money. 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,’”

Two years later, Jeremy Renner was involved in a near-fatal accident involving a snow plough, which resulted in him having to step away from acting for a while to recover from eight broken ribs, broken ankles, a broken right knee, a broken left leg tibia, a broken right clavicle and shoulder and more.

“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.’”

Disney has been going through some major cost-cutting measures over the past few years, drastically reducing the number of projects they make and also making the budgets on Marvel projects much smaller.   For example, both “Agatha All Along” and “Echo” had a budget of under $50 million, while the original “Hawkeye” series apparently had a budget of $150 million.  Jeremy shared his thoughts on why this is happening:

“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.  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 in 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.”

Hopefully, we get to see Hawkeye return in the upcoming “Avengers” movies, though Jeremy wasn’t listed in the upcoming list of cast for “Doomsday”.  But

Roger’s Take:  While I entirely understand Jeremy’s reasoning for not returning for half as much money as he got for the first season.  Especially as that does look like an insult, especially following his access.  However, I can also see how Disney might have offered that option as a last resort to try to get a second season, since it has completely changed its strategy for its Disney+ shows, drastically cutting budgets, ie “Secret Invasion” had a reported budget of over $250 million, $167 million for the second season of “Loki” and around $150 million for “Moon Knight”.  

So, when compared to “Agatha” and “Echo”, it’s clear why we’ve not seen a return to those higher budget shows, as Disney obviously doesn’t see the return on investment on those high budget shows.   Unfortunately, I don’t think we will see a follow-up series to most of the shows we’ve seen so far, as Marvel reduces its output and audiences have become worn out by its superhero shows and films.   But it still doesn’t excuse the low salary offer, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens next, if Disney tries to fix the situation or if they carry on without him, potentially recasting the character in the future.

Would you like to see a second season of “Hawkeye”?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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