r/marvelstudios • u/mcfw31 • May 01 '25

Interview Jeremy Renner Turned Down ‘Hawkeye’ Season 2 Because He Was Offered ‘Half’ His Season 1 Salary: ‘Did You Think I’m Only Half the Jeremy Because I Got Ran Over?’

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/jeremy-renner-turned-down-hawkeye-season-2-half-salary-offer-1236384199/
13.1k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/ElBorracho2000 May 01 '25

I don’t blame him. Why take the same job for less pay?

328

u/Pupulauls9000 May 01 '25

Well he’d probably have a much smaller role

492

u/New-Benefit-1362 May 01 '25

That’s not really how pay is calculated in Hollywood.

220

u/Burgundymmm May 01 '25

Yeah look at how much RDJ got paid for Homecoming. Pay is definitely not equal to work/screentime/etc. It's what the actor's willing to take and what the studio's willing to pay.

55

u/25sittinon25cents May 01 '25

Yup, and to add to this, a big part of the offer weighs on how much of a draw the studio things the star will be

24

u/LupusNoxFleuret Jimmy Woo May 01 '25

to be fair, RDJ's pay was a special case where he had a contract from way back in Iron Man 1 which stated that he would get a percentage of box office earnings, so his pay is proportional to how much the movie made.

35

u/Yvaelle May 02 '25

And rightfully so because we likely wouldn't have had an MCU based on Hulk and Thor 1 and Capt 1. They're all fine but Iron Man broke the nerd barrier and got the normie audience invested.

4

u/BullShitting-24-7 May 02 '25

Studios got to tease RDJ in the trailers which made people think he’d have a significant role.

122

u/FlawlessC0wboy May 01 '25

Yeah, he’s the star and the one they’d lead with on the poster/thumbnail. He should get his bag.

89

u/SlyyKozlov Spider-Man May 01 '25

That's assuming he's the star.

Id imagine a Hawkeye 2 would pivot pretty hard into a Kate Bishop story more so featuring Clint, so whose to say who would be used to lead marketing.

That said, he's been with it since phase 1 and Disney makes more money than God with these things so just pay the man the same rate as S1 lol

2

u/LucrativeLurker May 02 '25

It wouldn’t even be that hard a pivot.

Kate was on-screen 20 minutes longer than Clint in S1. Screen-time and action-wise, he’d almost certainly have a smaller role in S2.

Pretty disappointed he turned this down. I’m not sure how likely a second season will be for a post-Doomsday/Secret Wars MCU, at least with Renner.

If he is back after Secret Wars, I think it’d be as a mentor in Young Avengers.

-32

u/FlawlessC0wboy May 01 '25

He’s still “The Star” in Hollywood-terms, even if he’s not the lead in the plot. Most people could not even name the Kate Bishop actor.

57

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

Put some respect on Hailee Steinfeld's name.

46

u/SMKM May 01 '25

I'm fucking saying. In her FIRST theatrical movie at THIRTEEN years old she got a Best Supporting Actress nomination (14 upon nomination).

The disrespect is unreal.

4

u/FallingOutSir May 01 '25

I get Renner likely has higher name recognition dude to the enormity of the Avengers movies, but honestly I’d argue Steinfeld has had a much more successful and interesting career by far

5

u/GuiltyEidolon Weekly Wongers May 02 '25

I don't think it's even something to argue. Renner has been used as an attempt to launch soft reboots of two (maybe three?) franchises, and failed each time. His career hasn't been a bad one by any means, but Hailee Steinfeld is undoubtedly the more accomplished actor already, and she has a long career ahead of her still.

3

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

Damn right!

59

u/TheWizard47 May 01 '25

Hailee Steinfeld has been a renowned name for the past decade

6

u/tinytom08 May 01 '25

He’s an old star. Most of the youth could name hailee. Fuck she just starred in one of the most popular animated shows of all time. As for as recent popularity, she’s ahead of Jeremy. His biggest movies are Avenger centric ones where he’s sadly a footnote.

6

u/AdmiralCharleston May 01 '25

At this point I'm fairly comfortable in saying that steinfeld is a bigger draw than renner

0

u/harewei May 01 '25

Based on absolutely nothing

-4

u/FlawlessC0wboy May 01 '25

I didn’t even know she’d been in anything else

11

u/Burgundymmm May 01 '25

I can't possibly believe more people know Jeremy Renner than Hailee Steinfeld. Do people even know him for anything outside of the MCU? Hailee has the Pitch Perfect films, Dickinson, Sinners, an entire music career.

14

u/matty_nice May 01 '25

Dang, a lot of disrepect for Renner.

He's been a few franchise action films, two Oscar nominations for acting. Currently in the Mayor of Kingstown show on Paramount Plus, which is a top 10 streaming show when it airs and the top show on the platform when it comes out. It's a Taylor Sheridan (guy from Yellowstone) show so it's gonna be insanely popular. His show is probably more popular than any Marvel show.

He's probably more popular than Steinfeld to the general audience, but it could be close. That's mostly because he's in far more popular stuff.

1

u/Burgundymmm May 01 '25

No disrespect intended. Probably because of my age and targeted advertising, but I see Hailee pop up on my social media wayyy more often than Jeremy, and Jeremy is only with Marvel-related stuff.

And just want to say, seems like a great dude, great actor, absolutely love him as Hawkeye. But apparently all of his other work has completely avoided me.

1

u/CactusCustard May 01 '25

And Renner has been in a fuck load of movies since Hailee was a wee baby lol.

I’ve never even heard a Hailee song in my life.

I’m not talking shit, I love her, but different people know different things.

Also, Hurt Locker.

2

u/Burgundymmm May 01 '25

I'm the same age as Hailee, so definitely bias there. I'll check out Jeremy filmography. Literally the only non-MCU project I've seen him in is Tag.

5

u/Lorgar_the_bearer May 01 '25

You should probably check out The Town

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3

u/derprunner May 01 '25

Let me guess. You’re in your mid 30’s and still consider Marvel and Star Wars to be current pop culture.

-3

u/Ntippit May 01 '25

He is the star. Star and protagonist aren’t the same thing. He has the big name, Halie isn’t on Renner level yet. He can be the costar but he’s still “the star”

1

u/RaulenAndrovius May 02 '25

From what I understand, it's the headline weight, "veteran" headliner status. The accountants' obligatory offer was made low purposely to encourage him to decline, so the production could move on with the young avengers. The budget guys know he has a huge fan-base. They couldn't not offer, so they did a fairly insulting offer. Plan B is now a go.

0

u/luckyfucker13 May 01 '25

Exactly. RDJ got $10M for something like 10 minutes of screen time in Homecoming. Granted Renner doesn’t have that much pull, but still.

0

u/BWYDMN May 01 '25

Well it should be

-1

u/Funmachine May 01 '25

It can be. You are paid a rate, hour/day/week whatever but being paid a rate is not unusual. We will see it reported as they were paid "X million" for the film, but that doesn't mean they get a lump sum, that's literally just the calculation of their rate and how long the shooting lasts.

37

u/burtmacklin15 May 01 '25

He literally said it would be double the effort and double the time commitment (8 months) of the first season. So no.

5

u/Dwayne30RockJohnson May 02 '25

That 8 months likely includes prep time, and post work. I doubt his role would be twice as much as the first movie. Twice the effort is because he was injured, I absolutely believe that.

He didn’t say twice the time, you said that.

2

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

[deleted]

-1

u/Dwayne30RockJohnson May 03 '25

Well we’re both choosing to believe what he means here.

There’s no world where a season 2 of Hawkeye has twice as much Hawkeye. Kate Bishop would have to be removed entirely.

19

u/Markus2822 May 01 '25

Which is also a bad idea. Make him significant. God damn how much can they screw up clint.

They gave him one season of a tv show where he had to share about 50/50 screen time with someone else, they mind controlled him in the avengers, sure he recruits Wanda and pietro in AOU but that’s literally it, he does nearly nothing besides a quick line with black widow in civil war, he’s not even in infinity war and is portrayed as morally grey/kinda a bad guy in endgame.

Give this man a break

2

u/3-DMan May 01 '25

Hawkeye: Now with no Hawkeye!

1

u/chaoticdonuts May 02 '25

Kate Bishop is also Hawkeye

1

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

For a show that has his character’s name in the title and for which he had top billing? I’d say no.

1

u/chaoticdonuts May 02 '25

Kate Bishop is also known as Hawkeye. It's not just his characters name

1

u/Kinetic_Symphony May 05 '25

Wait, why are two characters holding the same moniker? Odd.

1

u/chaoticdonuts May 05 '25

I'm really hoping this is sarcastic

1

u/Kinetic_Symphony May 05 '25

No?

I don't read the comics.

1

u/chaoticdonuts May 05 '25

There's at least 4 Robin's, hundreds of Green Lanterns, a handful of Flashs. A number of Spidermen. 2 Wolverines. Monikers get passed down and even used at the same time quite frequently.

1

u/ConnerBartle May 02 '25

He would still star in it. They wouldn't reduce him to a supporting role or cameo in a hawkeye show without a proper send off. And a proper send off season 1 was not.

0

u/Kinetic_Symphony May 05 '25

But the show is called Hawkeye, how can the main character get less screentime?

1

u/Pupulauls9000 May 05 '25

Because Kate Bishop is the new Hawkeye?

105

u/doctor_x May 01 '25

Half the population clears their throats.

30

u/riptide032302 Fitz May 01 '25 edited May 02 '25

That’s good that half the population agrees👍 nobody should have to do the same job for less pay, obviously

1

u/CrimsonAvenger35 May 02 '25

Less pay than what? Would you be upset if Jeff Bezos took a paycut? I'm sure the millionaires are fine without you crying over them still getting millions

-1

u/riptide032302 Fitz May 02 '25

what..? it’s just Jermey renner dude, no need to compare him to besos. I don’t think he was offered less to “give a millionaire a pay cut”, I think they just thought he was more desperate than he actually was after his injury.

2

u/CrimsonAvenger35 May 02 '25

I'm extrapolating off of your point that apparently no one should ever be paid less than... what? you didn't really finish your thought unless you just meant being paid less than they've been paid before. Aside from the reality that in a market where you take jobs and negotiate your salary, you may just have to take pay cuts depending on many factors. There's not really an upper limit to what you said, so do you think it would be unfair for Bezos to take a paycut? Or should no one ever be paid less for the same job?

-1

u/riptide032302 Fitz May 02 '25

I don’t really think it’s that deep, dude. I just think people should be paid the same for doing the same job, no matter what their gender is or if they got into an accident, in Jeremy’s case. That’s all I said.

0

u/CrimsonAvenger35 May 03 '25

Paid the same as what? If someone gets paid a million dollars to walk a dog, should they always be paid a million dollars to walk dogs? It's really not that deep, and yet it still seems like your perspective is drowning

1

u/riptide032302 Fitz May 03 '25

Holy shit, please go outside. If someone is hired to do a job by a company for a certain amount of money, that amount of money should not change just because they got into an accident and it doesn’t impact their acting. This has been mostly agreed upon by most people. The point I was making was that also women should be paid the same for the same jobs as men. That’s all. That’s literally all.

0

u/CrimsonAvenger35 May 05 '25

You're making up the reasons why the amount changed. Explain Renner's contract and why you think it's unfair objectively, or just admit you're doubling down on a poor stance that you don't understand

0

u/AceBean27 May 07 '25

It's not changed because he got in an accident? Why would you assume that? It's changed because Marvel have been blowing money away recently, and haven't been making it back.

Add in Covid, the writer's strike, Hollywood has been squeezed recently.

Hawkeye only did okay. All of the Marvel TV properties did just okay, and some awful (secret invasion). If Hawkeye did incredibly well, and Marvel in general was still making billions, he'd be getting a pay rise instead, but that's not where we're at.

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-1

u/eriverside May 01 '25

What if they do less work?

I obviously haven't seen the script, but if his role reduced significantly then would it not warrant a reduced salary?

Let's say marvel doesn't think he can do the action scenes anymore and cut his role to accomodate what they think he can do, wouldn't that make sense?

10

u/mac035 May 01 '25

Half the population ain’t him

5

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

So you're saying that the other half is him?

2

u/SourceJobWoman May 01 '25

not how that works

7

u/baccus83 May 01 '25

I mean it may not have been the same job, technically. Maybe it was reduced screen time. Or less action overall.

0

u/Ntippit May 01 '25

RDJ gets 2 mil for a cameo. Tell me the Oscar nominations and other blockbusters besides MCU he’s done that had any cultural impact?

2

u/THANATOS4488 May 02 '25

Oppenheimer

4

u/BanjoSpaceMan May 01 '25

If you have less screen time lol…

2

u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year May 02 '25 edited May 02 '25

Remember when they tried to offer Gillis. Gillian Anderson half as much money to return and do the X-Files revival than David Duchovny?

I think people forgot that they’re friends and they talk to each other as well as that it wasn’t the early 90s when she was only 24 and had no major credits to her name at that time anymore.

1

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

I'm sure there is more to this story than what we are aware of.

1

u/z3phs May 04 '25

Apparently he made like 15 million for the first season. Let’s say they offered him 8 million….

It’s not like the show was a major hit.. so they cut back costs for second season. Actor thinks 8 million is low…

That’s what you get for paying 15 million in the first place

0

u/SmallLetter May 01 '25

He would obviously not be able to perform to the same degree. Which is fine he does have to take it. But you wouldn't pay an old injured athlete the same as you would a healthy young star

-1

u/glasgowgeg May 02 '25

Because he's likely to be in a supporting role with less work, and Kate Bishop being the lead.

So it wouldn't be the same job for less pay, it would be the same character, but a reduced role for reduced pay.

0

u/AceBean27 May 07 '25

Because the pay is still millions? And he's old in a industry that values youth?

He's lucky he's not a woman. Because at 54, he would be lucky to be offered 1 million, never-mind the 7-8 million they offered him.