Before it was announced as a TV show coming to Disney Plus, Hawkeye was originally being planned as a movie. Once Marvel decided to make the change, studio president Kevin Feige was admittedly somewhat nervous to tell Jeremy Renner. The executive wasn’t sure how the star would take the news. Thankfully, the actor was fine with making the adjustment and everything appeared to be headed in the right direction.
Now, however, everything seems to be up in the air. Renner has recently been accused by his ex-wife of some truly horrific things, including abuse and threats of murder. While the 48-year-old has strongly denied any wrongdoing, the family’s former nanny claims otherwise. This no longer seems like an unprovable case of he said/she said and the allegations only continue to get uglier by the day.
After some consideration, Disney currently has no plans to replace Renner in the titular role at this time. The decision comes as plenty of Marvel fans are urging the family-friendly studio to recast the part. This isn’t the first time people on the Internet have called for an MCU star’s job, but it definitely seems warranted in this circumstance. If these disturbing allegations turn out to be true, then Disney is going to look really bad for not getting rid of this guy sooner.
As of right now, the series is still moving forward with Renner and the show will reportedly act as a sendoff for the character of Clint Barton, as he trains his teen protégé Kate Bishop to eventually take over his superhero duties. Given the current accusations being levied against him and the mounting pressure for Disney to give him the boot, it’s possible that a lot of this mentoring could be done offscreen to reduce or potentially even completely remove Renner’s presence from the show. We’ll find out for sure next year though, as Hawkeye is set to arrive on Disney Plus in the fall of 2021.