'Avengers' Played a Role in Jeremy Renner Not Returning for 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout'

Jeremy Renner has been missing in action during the 2018 summer movie season. The actor courted some controversy when fans realized his Marvel character Hawkeye was missing from Avengers: Infinity War, and now Renner's Agent Brandt was conspicuously absent from Mission: Impossible - Fallout. However, as Fallout director Chistopher McQuarrie tells it, Renner's Avengers obligations were the reason why the actor couldn't make it into Mission: Impossible 6.

Speaking with Empire, McQuarrie revealed the following:

"Jeremy had his commitment to Avengers, which ironically they ended up not exercising, and we didn't know what the [sixth Mission] movie was, so we couldn't provide a schedule. We needed absolute freedom. The unfortunate thing for Jeremy is that he got caught in this perfect storm of, one can't use you and one doesn't know how to, given the massive complications they had with Avengers."

McQuarrie is a veteran of such hard-boiled crime films as The Usual Suspects and Way of the Gun, and as such, he had a pretty drastic workaround for Agent Brandt's absence: killing him off.

"I had this whole idea that the movie would start with the death of a team member," McQuarrie said. "And of course the first team member that's always the first guy we talk about killing is Luther... So I said to Jeremy, look we can't kill Ving, it's never going to work. No matter how many movies into it, it's always going to be the same thing. You killed the black guy. And we didn't think the movie could recover if you killed Benji.

So I said to Renner, 'Hey listen, I have this idea for an opening sequence where you sacrifice yourself to save the team, and that the mission-gone-wrong not only involves losing the plutonium, but involves the death of a team member.' And Jeremy was like, 'Thanks, but no thanks' […] He was smart not to take the short paycheck for three days of work and getting blown up."

Ultimately, the member of Ethan Hunt's (Cruise) IMF team live to fight another day - (SPOILER!) with the exception of Alec Baldwin's Alan Hunley, who is brutally killed by Henry Cavill's rogue CIA hitman, August Walker. It was probably a smart move to avoid taking out Brandt, as Renner has been a good go-to for stepping in to help support big franchises, whether it's Mission: Impossible, or the Bourne movies. At this point in its run, Mission: Impossible would do well to keep any options open for future twists, surprises and character returns - as Fallout made good use of all of the above.

Would you like to see Renner back in the next Mission: Impossible? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is now in theaters; Renner's Hawkeye will return in Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019.