Jeremy Renner wanted to Rennervate the script for “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” after realizing his character was going to be killed off.
During an appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast (video below), Renner revealed that he turned down reprising his role of IMF agent William Brandt for the 2018 franchise installment. Renner was asked to film for one week to close out Brandt’s “M:I” arc after he starred in 2011’s “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and 2015’s “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.”
“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 said. “If you’re going to do this and you’re going to use my character, you’re going to do it right.”
The “Mayor of Kingstown” star actually told director Christopher McQuarrie that the planned plotline for his character would be the “wrong” decision.
“I yelled at [director Christopher McQuarrie],” Renner said and laughed. “Dude, you’re not going to do this to me like that; you’re not going to do me wrong.”
In the end, McQuarrie didn’t. Renner didn’t film “Fallout,” and his character is (presumably) alive in that universe.
As for his former co-star Tom Cruise, who still leads the decades-spanning “M:I” film franchise, Renner has nothing but great things to say.
“As he’s maturing as an actor, he kinda wants to hold on, he’s doing ‘Top Gun’ again, right? He’s rebooting that, and let’s [lean] into the things in his life that he’s comfortable with now,” Renner said. “The guy’s a beast and works harder than anyone I know.”
Renner recently told Collider that he is open to returning to “Mission: Impossible” still, so long as Brandt lives longer than one scene.
“I love those guys. I love Tom so much. We had so much fun, and I love that character a lot,” Renner said, adding that he needed time off for his personal life before he could plow ahead with the character. “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. Maybe now that my daughter is older that could happen. I’d always jump into a ‘Mission: Impossible’ anytime and back into Brandt. It’s great.”
