HAWKEYE Star Jeremy Renner Talks About Cancel Culture and the Scrapped Jonathan Majors Marvel Storyline
The MCU was on a trajectory to have the next big bad adversary in Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors. He was introduced in the series Loki, and appeared in the sequel Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, but amid a very public domestic assault case, Majors was fired from Marvel studios, and plans changed.
Soon after the pivot, Marvel announced the return of the Russo Brothers and announced that they would direct the Avengers movies Doomsday and Secret Wars, and Doctor Doom became the next villain.
Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner talked about the Marvel storyline shift, as well as the fickle nature of cancel culture in a recent episode of the Breakfast Club podcast.
Renner was asked about his own checkered past due to media rumors in 2019, which claimed violence, threats, and dangerous drug use in his marriage with ex-wife Sonni Pacheco, and how that differs from Majors' situation.
He responded, "I don't know. I don't know what the difference is between gossip and anything else. I don't know enough about Jonathan and his situation to know. I know they had big plans for that character, that's for sure. Whatever transpired...that sucks, I think. The due diligence really has to be played out."
When asked to elaborate, Renner spoke in general terms about how online coverage of any situation like this can factor into how a company like Disney handles the fallout.
"There's a bigger kind of scope to that. The idea of public opinion becoming part of the court process...when did public opinion become more valuable than the actual truth in any situation?
“We've had that for a while with social media and all that stuff. I think it's kind of dangerous. All the cancel culture and all that stuff. It makes me want to run and hide."
We don't know when Renner will return to the MCU, but he recently said he is not set to return for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Hawkeye Season 2 may also be somewhere on the horizon, and he looks back on his time as part of this world fondly.
"No one ever expected it. Even the Marvel people were taken aback by it all. It happened pretty quickly from Iron Man into The Avengers.
“What a great...what are we, 13, 14 years into it, and it's still in the ring, still fighting, taking punches and throwing punches. It's a fun, fun, fun world. The friendships that were formed out of it. It started off so bizarre."
"Some of us knew each other before we started filming The Avengers, but Hemsworth and a few other people we didn't know. It's strange. It's like a Halloween costume.
“We're all wearing these bizarre outfits and these props. We're like, 'What are we doing? I don't know, but at least we're doing it together.' I got really great friendships out of the deal."
I hope Renner is able to return soon, hopefully for another season of Hawkeye, but we will just have to wait and see.