Jeremy Renner is front and center in Hawkeye, the Disney+ Marvel series that finds his heroic archer on an Avengers-free adventure alongside his pushy protégée Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). But before he was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Renner became renowned for his starring role in Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award winning film The Hurt Locker. Renner, who played a staff sergeant whose team was tasked with disarming bombs during the Iraq War, managed to pick up a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the movie. In the following year, Renner starred alongside director Ben Affleck in The Town as one of Boston’s most-wanted burglars and nabbed a Best Supporting Actor nomination. While The Hurt Locker and The Town both have action elements, they were more so dramas than full-on action films. In The Hurt Locker, Renner demonstrated how he can quickly turn his cool confidence into aggression when his character is tasked with disarming a bomb strapped to a man’s body. When he realizes he doesn’t have enough time to unlock the explosive vest, Renner quickly and believably evokes an overwhelming sense of guilt for failing to save the man. He's able to cycle through all of these emotions in a matter of minutes. And, in The Town, Renner puts on a Boston accent and brings an intensity to his performance opposite local Bostonian Affleck. In both films, he plays up his serious, everyman persona. Yet, in the following years, Renner was repeatedly positioned as a top-tier action star, though the films he made during that time never quite propelled him to become one. That outcome was ultimately for the better, as the thing about Jeremy Renner is that he doesn’t need to be an action star. It's his numerous dramatic and comedic roles that highlight his strengths as an actor.
Interestingly, Renner’s foray into action films have all involved playing a spy/assassin. In Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, Renner acted opposite Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as William Brandt, who claims to be merely an analyst for the Impossible Mission Force (IMF). But the film later reveals that Brandt had been a spy in the field before he failed in a mission to protect Hunt’s wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan). But there’s another plot twist — Julia is alive and Brandt is redeemed. However, as cinematographer Robert Elswit originally explained to the Light the Fuse podcast, Ethan Hunt was meant to take on the role of IMF Secretary while Renner’s character was potentially positioned as the franchise's new lead spy. Through a series of rewrites from Chris McQuarrie — Cruise’s long time writer collaborator and the eventual director of the next two Mission: Impossible films, Rogue Nation and Fallout — Cruise’s Ethan Hunt remained the central protagonist of the M:I franchise while Renner continued to play Brandt as a supporting character in Rogue Nation.
One year after Ghost Protocol, Renner was also positioned to take command of another major spy franchise. After director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon concluded the Bourne trilogy with The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal Pictures decided to continue the franchise with The Bourne Legacy with Renner playing a brand new character. Immediately after the events of Ultimatum, Legacy follows Renner’s Aaron Cross, a spy on the run from his agency, Outcome. As covert spy organizations like Treadstone have been exposed by Jason Bourne, Outcome now seeks to terminate their remaining spies and operations. Cross escapes with Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), and the film's conclusion sets up a sequel that would have Renner continuing to play the role. (The fellow-up film was far enough along in development for director Justin Lin to get attached.) However, when Greengrass and Damon announced that they were returning for a fifth Bourne film, simply titled Jason Bourne, plans for a Legacy follow-up were shelved. For now, Renner’s Aaron Cross remains waiting for his next adventure in the Bourne franchise, though it’s safe to say Cross is likely retired.
Then there’s Hawkeye. Between the releases of Ghost Protocol and The Bourne Legacy, Renner debuted as the bow-and-arrow-wielding Clint Barton in a cameo in the very first Thor film. He then followed that with a full-on appearance alongside his fellow Marvel superheroes in The Avengers, the experiment that united the Iron Man, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, and Thor franchises and launched the cemented MCU. But, even in that film, Renner received the short end of the stick, as Hawkeye was positioned as a mind-controlled minion of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. While Barton gradually grew in significance as a character in the MCU — he got a family in Age of Ultron and went through a redemption arc in Endgame following his dark turn as the vigilante Ronin — he was never front and center. Not many viewers related to him, a criticism of his character that's become an in-universe plot point in the new show as Kate hassles Clint about his “branding” problem.
But what may be the best thing about Hawkeye the series is that it highlights what makes Renner such a great actor. In the series, Renner doesn’t really shine as an action star. Yes, there are cool stunts and thrilling action sequences, but the focus is on Barton feeling past his prime. He's an aging father and husband who just wants to spend time with his family. He struggles with hearing loss brought on by his years in the field. And when he's forced into saving and eventually training Kate, he is presented as an aging mentor and world-weary superhero. These elements help Renner display his dramatic chops -- the same dramatic talent that won him critical acclaim with The Hurt Locker and The Town. In scenes where Clint struggles to hear his son over the phone, or is shaken from flashbacks to losing Natasha in Endgame, or is consumed by the guilt of becoming Ronin, Renner demonstrates why he was cast in the role in the first place -- not to be an action star but to fully embody all aspects of the character.
In addition to his dramatic strengths, Renner’s dynamic with Steinfeld in Hawkeye also showcases his considerable comedic chops, which he also got to display in Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation when he was partnered up with Ving Rhames’ Luther. Renner’s charismatic personality also played well in Tag, a comedy in which he plays one of a group of grown men (which also includes Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Hannibal Buress) involved in a 30-year game of tag. There’s no denying that Renner often has great chemistry with his fellow cast members.
Far too often, Hollywood attempts to take a hot young actor and push them into the action-star limelight. Take, for instance, Sam Worthington or Jai Courtney, both of whom interestingly starred in respective Terminator sequels that weren’t so well received critically or financially. For a period of time, when he was part of the MCU, Mission Impossible, and Bourne franchises all at once, Jeremy Renner was that same type of actor. But since then, he's been able to again prove that there’s more to him than just a generic action hero. If Renner had continued on playing William Brandt and Aaron Cross, he may have never been a part of Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. For now, fans are happy that he’s still Hawkeye, but Renner can just as easily branch off into more dramatic or comedic roles that will resonate with audiences.