Marvel star Jeremy Renner won't be back for Hawkeye season 2 because Disney reportedly tried to cut his salary in half: "I had to defend myself"

Jeremy Renner won't be returning for Hawkeye season 2, and according to the actor, his decision all comes down to money - specifically, it comes down to being offered half of his season 1 salary in exchange for even more work.

"They asked me to do Season 2, and they offered me half the money," Renner tells The High Performance Podcast. "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'."

Renner has portrayed Hawkeye since 2011's Thor, appearing in multiple Avengers movies as well as his own streaming series in which his character Clint Barton trained a new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld.

"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'," the actor quips in the interview, referring to his near-fatal accident in which he was run over by a 14,000-pound snowmobile.

"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 insult offer. So we didn't see eye to eye on it," Renner continues, explaining that he'd still be up for returning as Hawkeye, if he were to receive an offer of appropriate compensation.

"Sadly, I still love the character. I'd 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 I made the first season," he states. "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."

We're about to enter Marvel Phase 6, which kicks off in July with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. For more, check out our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies on the way in 2025 and beyond.