Okay, so there’s a little bit more to this Jeremy Renner Mission: Impossible story

Jeremy Renner is still open to returning to the Mission: Impossible franchise, but he had to protect his character

By Mary Kate Carr | June 4, 2024 | 2:24pm

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Okay, so there’s a little bit more to this Jeremy Renner Mission: Impossible story

Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner Photo: Dave Allocca/Starpix

Recently, Jeremy Renner said he would be happy to return to the Mission: Impossible franchise. He only left, Renner explained, because filming took too much time away and he wanted to be there for his kid. M:I was filming around the same time as his Marvel commitments, so it makes sense that Renner would have to give something up in order to achieve a better work-life balance. But the story doesn’t quite end there.

The production did try to bring Renner on for Mission: Impossible—Fallout. “I remember they tried to bring me over[seas] for a week so they could kill my character, and I was like, ‘No, you don’t get to do that. You’re not going to drag me over there and just kill my character,’ like, get out of here!” Renner says on a new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.“If you’re going to do this and you’re going to use my character, you’re going to do it right.”

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Director Christopher McQuarrie actually revealed as much to Empire magazine in 2018, saying he proposed a death scene to Renner who replied “Thanks but no thanks.” Now, Renner admits his response may not have been that polite: “I yelled at Chris,” he laughs. “Dude, you’re not going to do this to me like that. You’re not going to do me wrong.”

For his part, McQuarrie admitted Renner was “smart not to take the short paycheck for three days of work and getting blown up.” It means, of course, that the character of William Brandt is still alive and able to return to the IMF team in the future. Renner says the movies “are great fun to film, I enjoy it, I enjoy everybody on it.” He reiterates that “maybe, again like I said, because my daughter’s older, maybe there’s more of an opportunity to do something.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Renner brushes off rumors that he was supposed to take over as the lead of the franchise, while star Tom Cruise would become secretary of the IMF. “No, it was always Tom’s show,” Renner says. “That would be a Tom decision, if he ever wanted to change that narrative, right?” Renner speculates that maybe when things calm down Cruise might pass the baton, but observes that Cruise is “laying into his lane” as an action star and doing pretty well: “His franchises are billion dollar franchises!”

“The guy’s a beast, the guy works harder than anybody I know. He’s such an inspiration to me in so many ways,” Renner concludes. He also confirms that he does get Tom Cruise’s famous Christmas coconut cake. “It’s so good. It makes me believe in a lot of things. Makes me believe in love,” he laughs. “It’s so good.”