Jeremy Renner has explained why he had to leave the Mission: Impossible franchise, while also hinting at a possible return in the future.
The Hawkeye star featured in two of the Tom Cruise-led action blockbusters: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in 2011, and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in 2015.
However, Renner did not return for the two films that followed in 2018 (Fallout) and 2023 (Dead Reckoning – Part One), with his character William Brandt having retired from the spy force at the end of Rogue Nation.
Now, in a new interview with Collider, the Marvel star has revealed that he left the franchise because he wanted to focus on being an active father to his daughter, Ava.
“Yeah. I had to leave that,” Renner explained. “I was supposed to do more with them. I love those guys. I love Tom so much. We had so much fun, and I love that character a lot. It requires a lot of time away. It’s all in London. I had to go be a dad. It just wasn’t gonna work out then.”
However, Renner admitted that he would “jump” at the chance to return to the franchise now that Ava is older.
“Maybe now that my daughter is older that could happen,” Renner said. “I’d always jump into a Mission: Impossible anytime and back into Brandt. It’s great.”
Last week, Renner opened up about the gruesome details of his freak snow plough accident, revealing that his eye was left hanging out of his head.
On New Year’s Day in January 2023, the actor star was left in a critical condition after being run over by his 14,000-pound PistenBully snowcat. He was airlifted to hospital, where he underwent several surgeries to treat his injuries.
“[I] broke 38 bones,” Renner said during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “It was brutal,” he added.
When asked how much of his body was now made of metal, the actor touched the lower part of his leg, saying: “Well, this is metal.” He then added that “half my face is metal” and “all the right side of my back is metal”.
The actor went on to explain that he sustained “14 breaks in the ribs” before adding that one eyeball was hanging out of his head.
“You see your eye, with your other eye, because my eyeball was out,” he said. ‘So you just have weird things go through your head. It’s like, ‘Well, I guess that’s real, but I’ll worry about that later.’”
Having made a full recovery, Renner has now returned to work. In a recent interview with Good Morning America, he discussed how it felt being back on set of his Paramount+ crime thriller, Mayor of Kingstown.
“Starting the season this year at the beginning of the year was a little dicey, strength-wise, but by the end of it, usually you’re pretty shattered energy-wise but I feel pretty strong,” he said. “I had to physically and emotionally lean on the cast and crew to get through the days. They compensated with scheduling and stuff, so I could get stronger.”
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