Amid all the box office success, critical plaudits and general fanboy love, there have hardly been two cross words to rub together where The Avengers is concerned. However, Jeremy Renner is one dissenting voice, having not been happy with how his character came across in the finished film.
"For 90% of the movie, I'm not the character I signed on to play," says Renner, before homing in on the decision to have Hawkeye brainwashed by Loki from the get-go. "It's kind of a vacancy. [ He's ] not even a bad guy, because there's not really a consciousness to him."
"To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses... I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No."
To be fair to Renner, he does fall under Loki's spell remarkably early in proceedings, with the character barely having time to establish himself before becoming a pawn in the God of Mischief's game. He also gets next to nothing in the way of backstory, unlike his super-powered chums.
"Is [ Hawkeye ] working for SHIELD or not?" muses Renner. "There's a lot of unanswered questions, even for me." Unanswered questions that could be answered in a standalone film? Given Renner's attitude to The Avengers , we'd say that possibility is receding...
