Issues have been quiet on the Hawkeye entrance within the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a very long time now. Other than Hailee Steinfeld cameoing as Kate Bishop on the finish of The Marvels, neither she nor mentor Clint Barton have been within the highlight since Hawkeye performed to Disney+ subscription-holders in late 2021. Final week, Jermey Renner revealed that he’d turned down making Hawkeye Season 2 attributable to contract disputes, however new particulars have come to gentle alleging that there’s a unique motive that second batch of episodes by no means occurred.
Renner said that the explanation he didn’t comply with do Hawkeye Season 2 was as a result of he was solely supplied “half the cash” he did for Season 1. Nevertheless, each TheInSneider and Puck are reporting that Disney and Marvel intentionally lowballed him on the supply to make sure Season 2 would not occur in any respect.
The previous outlet claimed that Disney and Marvel did this as a result of they knew Renner would reject the supply and that might give them a motive to not “need to make a second season of the present.” The latter outlet backed up this declare concerning the lowballing and desirous to “pin the cancellation” on the Clint Barton actor. It additionally talked about that Hawkeye “attracted middling viewership,” so prices would have needed to come down for Season 2 regardless.
It’s true that Hawkeye didn’t precisely knock it out of the park with viewership. Based on Samba TV (by way of Deadline), the premiere episode was considered by 1.5 million households throughout its first 5 days of availability. That was a 40% drop-off from what Loki Season 1’s first episode earned inside that very same period of time in June 2021. Nevertheless, the finale did fare significantly better by amassing 938 million of viewing time throughout the Christmas week it premiered, up from the 853 million minutes the primary two episodes (by way of THR).
Regardless, if InSneider and Puck’s reviews are correct, then Hawkeye simply didn’t carry out effectively sufficient for Marvel and Disney to push Season 2 ahead. I can perceive that, however desirous to pin the blame on Jeremy Renner for the sequence not persevering with appears uncomfortably extreme and pointless. Did these corporations actually need to make use of that as public justification for why Hawkeye wouldn’t be persevering with? Despite the fact that I assumed this was one in every of Marvel’s higher Disney+ reveals, it led to a method that I didn’t robotically assume it was going to maintain going.
In any case, don’t rely on Hawkeye Season 2 being added to the checklist of upcoming Marvel TV reveals barring some surprising improvement. As Renner admitted in his interview, his physique is “in all probability thanking” him that this isn’t occurring, referring to his snowplow accident at first of 2023. Nonetheless, I hope he and Marvel Studios can come to an association and discover a method for him to return elsewhere within the MCU. It’d be nice to see Clint again in motion once more, even with Kate Bishop having absolutely taken over the Hawkeye mantle.
For now, Thunderbolts* is now enjoying in theaters, and The Improbable 4: First Steps follows on July 25. TV-wise, Ironheart premieres June 24 on Disney+, and Surprise Man premiers on the 2025 TV schedule in November.