Jeremy Renner had a pretty good reason to exit the Mission: Impossible franchise.
“I had to leave that,” the actor told Collider in an interview published on Monday. “I was supposed to do more with them. I love those guys. I love Tom [Cruise] so much. We had so much fun, and I love that character a lot.”
However, he noted that making the films “requires a lot of time away”.
“It’s all in London,” he added. “I had to go be a dad.”
Jeremy had starred as William Brandt in 2011′s Ghost Protocol and 2015′s Rogue Nation amid reports that he might replace Tom Cruise as the Mission: Impossible lead.
But Renner left the action film series before its highest-grossing entry, 2018′s Fallout. Director Christopher McQuarrie said at the time that a scheduling conflict had prevented Jeremy from appearing in the film.
Speaking to Collider, though the actor emphasised that reprising his role “just wasn’t gonna work out then” since he was raising a young child, Ava Berlin Renner.
“Maybe now that my daughter is older that could happen,” Jeremy said. “I’d always jump into a Mission: Impossible anytime and back into Brandt. It’s great.”
The first Mission: Impossible movie was released in 1996, and although it was a hit, later entries turned the franchise into a bona fide box-office behemoth.
Not only has Mission: Impossible raked in billions worldwide, but helped make Tom Cruise perhaps the most famous Hollywood star turned stuntman with his death-defying showstoppers.
Meanwhile, in the years following Rogue Nation, Jeremy would continue to appear as the superhero Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He proved to be a real-life superhero at the start of 2023 when he reportedly prevented a snowplough from hitting his nephew.
Though the actor nearly died in the incident, he recently told late night host Jimmy Fallon that it taught him some valuable lessons.
“I won’t have a bad day for the rest of my life,” he said. “It’s impossible.”