Jeremy Renner has made a full recovery from the serious accident on New Year's Day near his home in Northern Nevada which almost ended his life last year. The actor recently returned to work, filming scenes for the third season of crime drama Mayor of Kingstown - but will we see him back in the MCU as Clint Barton at some point?
Renner recently said that he was "ready" to return, but it sounds like it might take the right story for him to fully commit to taking up Hawkeye's bow and arrow again.
"Maybe if enough time goes by, right? I think it kind of has at this point, but also what is the point of the narrative [and] the story?" he told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "These are beloved characters. We did spend 23 films together essentially as a collective. What is the reason? What is the story? Do you have to do more after that? How do you ever resolve this?"
"When is it ever gonna feel like, 'Everyone gets their little bow, nobody died, it feels great!' What happens here?" he continued. "I've got feelings about it. I think everybody does. I think the guys that died have feelings about it."
Speaking of his Avengers co-stars, Renner made it very clear that they all share a very close bond in real life, and their relationship isn't something that's been manufactured for the purposes of promoting their movies.
“Oh, f*ck yeah, it’s a real thing—it’s not just for Instagram. We [frick]in’ hate that shit,” he tells Men's Health. “No, we have a family chat and have for a long time. When you work with people—look, we all went through a culturally significant experience together. And there’s divorces and marriages and babies; a lot of stuff happened in these 12 years. In the films, we look like we’re at a costume party, and there’s ridiculous props and we’re doing these ridiculous things, but it’s also beautiful because we’re all connected. There’s a brotherhood or sisterhood or whatever the heck you want to call it. I just call it love. I love every one of them. I’d rather go to jail with Downey than go do something amazing by myself. I’d rather get in a car crash with Evans.”
Other MCU actors have shared similar sentiments, and despite the likes of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) being killed off, many fans are eager to see the OG Earth's Mightiest Heroes reunite on the big screen one more time.
If it does happen, it will likely be in Avengers: Secret Wars, but Kevin Feige has previously echoed Renner's concerns that reassembling the team just for the sake of it would feel forced, so we'll just have to wait and see.
What do you think? Would you like to see the original team back in action? Drop us a comment down below.