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Jeremy Renner is defending himself against an “insult offer” he claims to have received from Disney.
The actor, who played superhero Hawkeye in several Marvel projects, said in a new interview on the “High Performance” podcast that the company approached him to do a second season of the Disney+ series “Hawkeye,” but they offered him half the amount he made during the first season.
“They asked me to do a season two, and they offered me half the money,” Renner alleged. “And I’m like, wow. It’s going to take me twice the amount of work for half the amount of money. And so eight months of my time, essentially, and I have to do it for half the amount.”
JEREMY RENNER STANDS ‘STRONG AGAIN’ 2 YEARS AFTER DEVASTATING SNOWPLOW ACCIDENT NEARLY KILLED HIM
Jeremy Renner blamed “penny pinchers” at Disney for giving him an “insult offer” to do season two of “Hawkeye.” (Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival)
He continued, “I’m like, ‘Why? ’Cause you think I’m only half the Jeremy ‘cause I got ran over?’”, referring to the Jan. 1, 2023 incident in which a snow plow rolled over him in his driveway, nearly killing him.
Renner clarified, “And this is not Marvel, mind you, this is 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 that.”
The “Avengers” star maintained that he still loves the character and that he would enjoy reprising the role, but he insisted he “had to defend myself.”
Jeremy Renner, pictured in “Hawkeye,” has played the Marvel superhero across several projects. (Chuck Zlotnick / ©Disney+/Marvel Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection)
“I didn’t ask for any more money, mind you,” Renner said. “It’s just ‘pay me what I made the first season.’ So it’s a little 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.”
Disney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, though the company did dispute Renner’s claims to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Hawkeye” premiered on Disney+ in November 2021. The miniseries ran for six episodes and was generally well-received. Renner also played the character in several “Avengers” movies, as well as in “Captain America: Civil War.”
“Avengers: Doomsday,” the next chapter in the popular Marvel film series, is set to release in May 2026. Renner has not officially been confirmed to be part of the cast at this time.
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Jeremy Renner said that while it was “disheartening” not to be able to make a deal with Disney, he had to “defend” himself. (Gilbert Flores)
The actor is currently promoting his new book, “My Next Breath,” a memoir about his 2023 near-death experience.
“As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired,” Renner wrote in the book, per Us Weekly. “After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour … that’s when I died.”
“I died, right there on the driveway to my house.”
Jeremy Renner has been open about his recovery following his January 2023 snowplow accident. (Jeremy Renner/Instagram)
“I know I died — in fact, I’m sure of it,” he wrote.
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Renner noted that the EMTs said his “heart rate had bottomed out at 18.”
“This was basically dead,” Renner, who said he was at “an exhilarating peace,” wrote.
Jeremy Renner attends the World Premiere of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ “Avengers: Endgame” at Los Angeles Convention Center on April 22, 2019 in Los Angeles. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
“When I died, what I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy,” he added. “There was no time, place, or space, and nothing to see, except a kind of electric, two-way vision made from strands of that inconceivable energy.”
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“I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once,” he added. “In death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.”
Fox News Digital’s Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
