Jeremy Renner may have just spoiled Avengers: Doomsday's ending without being in it
One original Avenger says Marvel never called him for the December movie. His consolation joke happens to describe the exact ending fans have spent a year bracing for.
The clip is from Comic Con Liverpool, and it went viral on October 11 after the fan account @drdoomarchive resurfaced it. Asked whether he's in Avengers: Doomsday, out December 18, Jeremy Renner answered: "No, no, no, no. Not in that one." Then came the part that turned a casting non-story into a plot story.
"They didn't call me, so it's their fault they're going to lose."
— Jeremy Renner, at Comic Con Liverpool, via Forbes
The best detail is in the room's reaction: when Renner joked about the Avengers losing without him, an audience member shouted "again" — because this has literally happened before. Renner sat out Infinity War, and the Avengers got snapped. He came back for Endgame, and they won. His track record as a predictor is, so far, two for two.
Why one joke reads like a plot leak
"The Avengers will probably lose" wouldn't sting if it weren't the consensus guess. Doomsday is the first half of a two-part story that concludes with Secret Wars on December 17, 2027, and ComicBook.com puts the fan expectation plainly: audiences are bracing for Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom to win and set up a cliffhanger. Marvel's own rollout keeps feeding that read — the most recent cast reveal showed Bruce Banner being "collected" by Doom, language that sounds less like a fight and more like an acquisition.
Add the roster. The announced cast is still missing Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, and now, by his own account, Hawkeye — a lineup of absences that makes sense if half the cavalry is being saved for the rematch. So when a founding Avenger jokes that the team loses the movie he's not in, he isn't leaking the script. He's confirming which way everyone's weather vane already points.
The half-a-Jeremy problem
"They didn't call me" isn't a throwaway line from this particular actor, because Renner has spent two years narrating his standoff with the franchise's accountants:
- January 1, 2023: Renner is crushed by his own snowplow saving his nephew — over 30 broken bones, a near-death experience, a memoir (My Next Breath) and a years-long rehab.
- May 2025: On the High Performance podcast, via Variety, he reveals Marvel offered him half his season 1 salary for Hawkeye season 2. He turned it down flat and pointedly blamed "the penny pinchers," not Marvel's creatives.
- July 2025: He tells Empire he's at 150 percent physically, loves the character, and is sure more Hawkeye is coming.
- October 2025: On The Breakfast Club, he says he's not in Doomsday or Secret Wars — "I'm pretty busy myself" — and jokes Marvel can recast him with a multiversal Variant.
- October 2026: Comic Con Liverpool. Not in "that one." The Avengers will probably lose.
The salary story is the context that gives the new joke its edge. This is a man who publicly asked his employer one of the great questions in Hollywood labor relations:
"Did you think I'm only half the Jeremy because I got ran over?"
— Jeremy Renner, on the High Performance podcast, May 2025
The fans' verdict: he's lying
Here's the thing — large parts of the fandom simply don't believe him. GamesRadar's writeup is literally subtitled "fans don't believe him," and the reaction it quotes is blunt:
"He's definitely lying."
— a fan on X, via GamesRadar
The skeptics have a real case file, not just vibes. Renner denied Secret Wars a year ago, and insider Daniel Richtman has since reported he's back for it anyway. His Liverpool phrasing — "not in that one" — rules out exactly one of two movies. Hailee Steinfeld, whose Kate Bishop is the obvious bridge to bring Clint back, has reportedly been unable to keep a straight face when asked about either film. And Samuel L. Jackson just ran the identical two-step days earlier, confirming Nick Fury skips Doomsday but returns in the "next movie after this one."
Previously we wrote: Clayface box office predictions are in, and James Gunn is defending the October 23 movie citing Casablanca
Even the filmmakers are telling you the cast list is incomplete. Asked about the lineup at an Endgame Encore Q&A, Anthony Russo said this much on the record:
"We've announced some of the cast, and we haven't announced some of the cast."
— Anthony Russo, co-director of Doomsday
So the most likely version of events threads both truths: Renner really wasn't called for Doomsday, the Avengers really do lose it, and the archer comes back for the rematch — same as 2018, same as 2019. He's not spoiling the ending out of spite. He's lived it once already.
Renner sat out one Avengers movie before. The Avengers lost it. The crowd in Liverpool did the math out loud.