Jeremy Renner may have said goodbye to Mission: Impossible‘s world of espionage, but that doesn’t mean he would never return to the role of William Brandt.
The Hawkeye star entered the franchise in the 2011 installment, Ghost Protocol. At the end of 2015’s Rogue Nation, his character retired from his career in the Impossible Mission Force.
In an interview with Collider, Renner revealed there was one particular reason he left the franchise, despite reports at the time that he was being groomed to take over the lead role from Tom Cruise.
“I had to leave that,” the Mayor of Kingstown star told the publication. “I was supposed to do more with them. I love those guys. I love Tom so much. We had so much fun, and I love that character a lot. It requires a lot of time away. It’s all in London. I had to go be a dad. It just wasn’t gonna work out then.”
Renner welcomed his only child, Ava, with his ex, Sonni Pacheco, in March 2013 and wanted to be an active part of her life. Now that she’s older, The Avengers star admitted he would “jump” at the chance to return to the long-running franchise.
“Maybe now that my daughter is older that could happen,” he said. “I’d always jump into a Mission: Impossible anytime and back into Brandt. It’s great.”
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show earlier this week, Renner also talked about his relationship with his daughter and the sweet message he had for her following his near-death snowplow accident in January 2023, when he saved his nephew from being run over by the 14,300-pound vehicle. The snowcat slid and rolled over the actor instead, resulting in more than 30 broken bones and a crushed skull.
His injuries were so severe, he told Kelly Clarkson, he forgot who his daughter was. When he returned home from his hospital stay, he recalled seeing real fear on her face for the first time in her life.
“The reality of what transpired really set in,” he said. “What I had done to my daughter, what I actually did to my nephew, to my whole family, that really set in. So, I asked her to wait for me. I said, ‘These are just 38 broken bones, darling. And they’re all going to heal. And I promise, if you wait for me, I’ll be better, I’ll be faster, I’ll be stronger than you’ve ever seen before. I promise. You have to wait for me.’”
