After existing under the radar for most of his career, Jeremy Renner became quite a hot commodity in Hollywood in recent years. Following his breakout role in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker in 2008, then his subsequently well-received supporting role in Ben Affleck’s big 2010 Oscar-winning movie The Town, Renner found himself on a lot of short lists. He became “the guy that’s going to inherit the Mission: Impossible franchise from Tom Cruise,” he- similarly- became “the guy that’s going to take over as the focal point for a new series of Bourne films,” and then he signed on to be part of Marvel’s cinematic universe as Hawkeye. After griping, publicly, about wanting to play the character he “signed up for,” following a very marginalized role in The Avengers, many wondered if the actor would perhaps like to see Hawkeye take center stage at some point.

Not so fast, says Renner.

While the whole “taking over Mission: Impossible” thing didn’t pan out, he is still part of that franchise and will appear in the fifth film in the series when it comes out next Christmas. Also, while his Aaron Cross didn’t exactly set the world on fire in The Bourne Legacy, he’s still expected to be part of that series when it returns in 2016 with Matt Damon back in the iconic role of Jason Bourne. So Renner’s “franchise slate” is pretty loaded as it is.

In a chat with MTV, the actor makes it very clear that he’s not looking for a Hawkeye spinoff. “I’m happy to be the ensemble. I’m not scratching or clawing to do a solo movie by any means,” he says. Renner would then add that he thinks Hawkeye is better utilized as a team player, and drops a major hint at what his first post-Avengers: Age of Ultron assignment might be: Renner says he sees his Clint Barton/Hawkeye as “a utility guythat can bounce around into other people’s universes a little bit, especially like Cap 3.“

ome found it notable, myself included, that the actor didn’t make an appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Considering how closely linked Barton had been to the machinations of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Thor and in The Avengers, add in how he’d been paired so tightly with Black Widow (who did appear in the film), and finally how huge of a twist regarding S.H.I.E.L.D. was established in the movie, him not even being so much as referenced felt odd. Recently, one of the directors of that film, Joe Russo, revealed that there had been a plan to include him at one point. That got scrapped, and since then there’s been some back-and-forth between Renner and the Russos about whether he’d make his way into Captain America 3. The Russos coyly shrugged off the suggestion, yet Renner is still mentioning it.

Must be something to it then, no?

What do you think? Want to see Hawkeye pair up with Steve Rogers similarly to the way Black Widow did in Winter Soldier? There’ll probably be a lot less sexual tension between them, but could be cool, no?

SOURCE: MTV