Mark Ruffalo recently said that as far as he knew everyone would be back for THE AVENGERS 2. Well I hate to tell you this Mark but it looks like you might be wrong: CBM has a source claiming that Jeremy Renner is out as Hawkeye and the part might be re-cast.
Why? You might remember that Renner had previously made these comments about how he wasn't too pleased with how his character turned out in THE AVENGERS:
For 90% of the movie, I'm not the character I signed on to play," he said, adding that he would have preferred for Hawkeye not to have been brainwashed. "It's kind of a vacancy. [He's] not even a bad guy, because there's not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses… I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No.
Allegedly Marvel isn't happy with Renner's remarks and like other actors that have bad mouthed the studio (Hugo Weaving, Terrence Howard) it looks like his time with Marvel may be coming to an end. So far it doesn't look like Hawkeye will be appearing in any of Marvel's Phase 2 films besides THE AVENGERS 2 (which probably further annoys Renner) and while CBM's source says there's still a small chance Jeremy Renner will return for that movie it's more likely that the part will just be re-cast. The source also hinted that if someone else does sign on to play Hawkeye that there's a possibility that the character would end up in the new television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and would become one of the primary characters.
Although none of this has been confirmed by Marvel (of course) I wouldn't be surprised if the part was re-cast and I'd be OK with that. I understand where Renner is coming from and at this point it's probably best for both parties if they just moved on from here. I don't think too many people will have an issue with someone else playing Hawkeye since characters in the Marvel universe have been re-cast before (Edward Norton, Terrence Howard) and to be honest Hawkeye would be a pretty sweet addition to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. With Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch joining the team in THE AVENGERS 2 things are going to get very crowded so maybe it would be best for the character if he ended up on the television show.
I'm sure that if this is true some statement will be made shortly so keep your eyes open for an update.