Jeremy Renner Could Be Hawkeye In The Avengers And Thor

Here's a little Thanksgiving treat: Jeremy Renner, who was so great in The Hurt Locker and was batted around as a possibility to become the new Mad Max, is saying he may appear as the superhero archer Hawkeye in a couple of Marvel movies. How do you stock a couple of films with multiple minor superheroes and not have them all look silly? By casting people like Renner, who can do a lot with very little material.

The Playlist transcribed some quotes from the UK edition of Empire, in which Renner says he's been having discussions with Marvel about playing Hawkeye in at least two upcoming Marvel films, then appearing in The Avengers in a full-blown role, rather than a cameo. If the deal did go through, sounds like he'd at least cameo in Thor before  The Avengers hits. At the end of Captain America, perhaps? Seems very late to be shoehorned into Iron Man 2, but anything is possible.

Here's the salient quote:

Hawkeye could be interesting. They're going to send me some stuff on it, see what it is. But I think they're pretty awesome, trying to make superhero movies almost plausible and not just some fantasy thing.

Not much to go on here, but given the history we've already seen with Samuel L. Jackson doing his Nick Fury cameo, and with Robert Downey Jr. showing up at the end of The Hulk, it's not hard to imagine how this would go down.

Here's a little history on Clint Barton, the original Hawkeye, now called Ronin. Note that his inspiration to become a superhero was Iron Man and he was close with the Black Widow so there's enough reason to speculate on an Iron Man 2 cameo right there. (Which, again is probably very unrealistic, but not impossible.) Note also that became an Avenger by breaking into the group's headquarters; that sort of character note is right in line with the self-confident lone wolf operator Renner played in The Hurt Locker. From the Marvel Universe guide:

Clint Barton was orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a car accident and was sent to a children's home with his brother Bernard. He and his brother ran away to join the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders, and the pair worked as roustabouts...Hawkeye was trained by the original Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne) and Trickshot. Clint's life, however, would forever be changed after he stumbled onto the Swordsman counting the money he had just robbed from the carnival. The Swordsman offered Clint to become his partner in crime, but Clint rejected his mentor, sparking a fight that ended when the Swordsman left him for dead after he fell from the high wire.Clint wandered the country, working in various carnivals or otherwise making money out of the costume and persona of "Hawkeye". One day, when witnessing Iron Man save the lives of some people at the carnival, he decided to become a costumed crime-fighter himself....He soon met the Black Widow, who was working at the time as a costumed villain for her country, and she easily seduced the hot-headed adventurer, making him think it was in his interest to defeat Iron Man...Instead, he hoped to join Iron Man's team of Avengers. As a way of proving himself, he broke into the Avengers Mansion and convinced their butler, Jarvis, to play the role of a victim so he could display his powers. Iron Man vouched for Hawkeye, and he joined the new line-up that included Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.