Ever since Joss Whedon announced that one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes may not make it out of Avengers: Age of Ultron alive, fans have speculated that Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye would be the one to bite the dust. Out of the superhero team, Hawkeye’s been given the shortest shrift and the least amount of both screentime and character development, so killing him off wouldn’t really affect the larger MCU that killing someone like Tony Stark or Captain America would.
Renner recently appeared on Larry King Live, and was asked point blank if he would die in Age of Ultron. His answer?
“No no. No, I don’t die. I think they want to keep [characters] around for a while.”
This jives well with Renner’s recent comments about Hawkeye possibility showing up in Captain America 3. Obviously, it could also be a case of misdirection, as the actor would likely get in a lot of trouble if he revealed that his character dies at some point in the film. Honestly though, even if he did die, he probably wouldn’t stay dead for long. Joss Whedon may have a thing for killing off characters, but Marvel has quite the knack of bringing people back from the dead. At this point, they’ve made it quite clear that death means little in the MCU.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release in the UK on April 24th 2015 and North America on May 1st 2015, with Joss Whedon directing a cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (The Incredible Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Paul Bettany (JARVIS / The Vision), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), James Spader (Ultron), Thomas Kretschmann (Baron Strucker) and Josh Brolin (Thanos).
Originally published August 29, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
