Actor Jeremy Renner explained why Marvel fans have been waiting so long for the second season of "Hawkeye" to be released.
In an interview with High Performance, he said he was offered only half of what he earned for the first season of the Disney+ show.
"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,'" he said.
Renner hinted that the reduced pay offer may have been influenced by his near-fatal snowplow accident in 2023.
"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," he said.
Renner was critically injured on Jan. 1, 2023, when a 14,330-pound Sno-Cat ran him over as he tried to help his nephew near his Lake Tahoe home, leaving him with over 30 broken bones and severe chest and orthopedic trauma, Variety reported.
"This is not Marvel, mind you. This is like, just Disney, not even really Disney. It's just the penny pinchers, the accountants," Renner said of the pay cut, noting that he told them to "go fly a kite."
"I mean, just at the insult offer. So we didn't see eye to eye on it,” he said, adding that he's not ruling out a return to "Hawkeye" in the future.
"Sadly, I still love the character. I'd still love to do it, but I had to defend myself," he said. "I didn't ask for any more money, mind you. Just pay me what I made made 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."
Renner previously opened up about his snowplow accident and the lessons learned.
"[You're] being tested to your limits, your physical limits, your spiritual limits, your emotional limits," he shared during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" last year, according to the Independent. "It's like, I won't have a bad day for the rest of my life. It's impossible, right? There's that gift."