Jeremy Renner Rejected ‘Hawkeye’ Season 2, Claims Disney Only Offered “Half” His Salary

Jeremy Renner is revealing why he shot down returning to Disney+ for Hawkeye season two.

The actor claims he was only offered half of his original season one salary by “the penny pinchers” at Disney.

What’s more, Renner says this happened after his devastating 2023 snowplow accident, which nearly cost him his life, and took months of rehabilitation to recover from — adding insult to literal injury.

Speaking to the High Performance sports podcast (clip below) and sounding rather perturbed, Renner said: “They asked me to do season two, and they offered me half the money. I’m like, wow, it’s going to take me twice the amount of work for half the amount of money — eight months of my time, essentially, and you do it for half the amount? I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, why? Did you think I’m only half the Jeremy because I got ran over?’ Is that why want to pay me half of what I made on the first season?”

That said, a Disney insider contacted by The Hollywood Reporter disputed Renner’s claims but did not get into specifics.

Added Renner: “And this is not Marvel. My juice is like this Disney — not even really Disney, it’s just the penny pinchers, the accountants. I told him to go fly a kite at the insult offer. And so we didn’t see eye to eye on it, sadly. I still love the character, I would still love to do it, but I had to defend myself. I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what you paid me the first season. So it’s a little disheartening that didn’t happen, but that’s fine. I’m happy to let that go, because my body’s probably thanking me that I’m not doing that right now.”

In general, an actor’s salary tends to increase for subsequent seasons of a TV show. The first season of Hawkeye was released in 2021 to strong reviews, earning a 92 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88 percent audience score. Furthermore, the show was a Top 10 show in the streaming ratings, and grew week after week during its five-week run, with its finale peaking with 938 million minutes of viewing time during Christmas week. It is unclear if or when Renner could return to Marvel. He was not among the cast announced for Avengers: Doomsday, though more castings are to come.

Here’s the interview clip: