Jeremy Renner Will Not Be Hawkeye

Last month the news spread rather quickly that actor Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later) had discussions with Marvel execs about playing Hawkeye, Marvel’s resident archer, in The Avengers film (as well as a rumored cameo in Thor). It’s seemingly unanimous among fans that this casting choice is a very positive thing.

Well, we hate to burst your bubble, but coming from Renner himself, this apparently isn’t happening. Or is he just playing coy after the net got to talking?

In a recent interview with Movieline, Renner addressed the Hawkeye situation, one that he started himself. When asked about the role, Renner says “there’s no truth to me doing it”.

Here’s the full quote, from the Movieline interview:

That was just one of those things that got blown way out of proportion. It was an idea. Those Marvel guys, I’m a big fan of them. They’re so smart about how they want to do these things — they have Captain America, and Thor coming around, Iron Man 2, and then I happen to know Zak Penn, who’s writing The Avengers. So they thought Hawkeye is an interesting role, and asked me if I knew anything about him. I said no, so they gave me their sort of spiel on what he was, and I thought that it was kind of interesting. The only reason it came out this early, because Avengers is two years away, is that they’re thinking OK, we may throw him in Thor, we may not, as a cameo. You know what I mean? So there’s truth that we talked about it, but there’s no truth to me doing it.

Now that’s a bummer. That being said, actors spill the beans all the time and are forced to back-pedal until contracts are signed or the studio gives the go ahead. This could be one of those cases of passive denial mixed in with some ambiguity. It also, like Renner said, could be one of those things that was simply blown out of proportion; these things happen dozens of times each year.

I really hope that this does pan out for Renner, as he’d be a fantastic Clint Barton. So get on him Marvel.

More news on Hawkeye and Marvel films, as they develop.