Jeremy Renner says that he had “no idea” that Robert Downey Jr. had been cast as Doctor Doom prior to the San Diego Comic-Con announcement.
On July 27, 2024, it was announced at Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con that Downey Jr. would be returning to the MCU; rather than reprising his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man, however, he will now be playing the villainous Doctor Doom.
Speaking with Us Weekly about the news, Renner, who plays Hawkeye/Clint Barton in the Avengers franchise, addressed Downey Jr.’s upcoming MCU return.
“I had no idea! I had no idea,” Renner said. “This son of a b**** didn’t say anything to me. We’re good friends. We have an Avenger family chat, right, the original six? Not a peep. I got online and started blowing up his phone going like, ‘What’s going on? You’ve been hiding this from us all along?’ It’s exciting news. I’m really, really excited about it.”
Jeremy Renner addresses potential Hawkeye return
Renner also addressed whether Hawkeye could potentially return in either 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday or 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, both of which are being directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
“I think there are asks out for it,” he commented. “There are a lot of people to sort of aggregate. I think it’s a huge undertaking. You got Downey back in the mix, you got the Russo Brothers back in the mix. You always got Feige and Marvel. I think this is a direction where Marvel is going to do well, I think. The Avengers movies have always been fan-favorites and there are so many wonderful characters in them. I think it’s going to be challenging to get everybody together. I think they’ll probably have to piece it together week-by-week because of people’s schedules. There are a lot of people. But I’m excited about it. I think we’ll probably be doing it, we’ll have to figure it out. It’s all brand new, it all just happened, right, they just made an announcement. I guess we’ve got to start figuring it all out.”
