Here's How Badly Jeremy Renner Wanted Hawkeye to Die in 'Avengers'

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye/Clint Barton in ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ (Photo: Jay Maidment/Disney/Marvel via AP)

The big fake-out of Avengers: Age of Ultron was that Hawkeye seemed destined to bite the dust — until another Avenger (whom we won’t name here) took a bullet for him. As it turns out, Jeremy Renner had a bit of a death wish for his character from the beginning. During London Film and Comic-Con on Saturday, Renner said that he faked heart attacks while shooting Hawkeye’s scenes in The Avengers, in hopes of encouraging the filmmakers to kill him off.

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“I just had a heart attack in every scene — I’d just be walking with… Scarlett Johansson, and just like be, 'Ugh!'” Renner said during a Q&A (via Radio Times). “And they said, ‘What are you doing man?’ [I said,] 'I’m giving you an option, if you just want to kick me out of this movie. Just you know, at any given moment, if you wanna kill me off, daddy’s gonna be having a heart attack.’“

Renner’s fake bout with heart disease came out of his frustration with Hawkeye’s character arc: In the first Avengers film, he was mainly a brainwashed villain.

"I was just getting to know who Hawkeye was, and then zap, I go round like a zombie, I’m like Loki’s minion,” he recalled. “So I’m a little frustrated, because I was so excited to figure out who Hawkeye was.”

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Now, said Renner, he appreciates that more nuanced character that Hawkeye has become. “I don’t really want him to die now,” the actor said. “I really got to explore him a lot, and I can’t wait to explore him more, and there’s some really cool ideas coming up.“

"Really cool ideas. Great deaths!” he joked. “Amazing ways to die.”

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