10 Actors Who Refused To Die On Screen
7. Jeremy Renner - Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Jeremy Renner joined the Mission: Impossible franchise in its fourth entry, Ghost Protocol, as IMF agent William Brandt, with many fans believing that he was introduced as a possible replacement for Tom Cruise's ageing franchise hero Ethan Hunt.
However, that whispered-about plan never came to fruition after Ghost Protocol revitalised the series' popularity, and with Renner subsequently playing Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he only returned for a relatively piecemeal role in the fifth movie, Rogue Nation.
Brandt was totally absent from the most recent film, Fallout, and will seemingly not appear in either of the franchise-concluding Dead Reckoning movies either, but he did almost show up in Fallout.
In an interview with Empire, Fallout filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie revealed that while Renner couldn't commit to a full role in the movie due to his MCU schedule, he could make a brief appearance in the film's pre-title sequence and be killed off:
"I had this whole idea that the movie would start with the death of a team member... So I said to Renner, 'Hey listen, I have this idea for an opening sequence where you sacrifice yourself to save the team, and that the mission-gone-wrong not only involves losing the plutonium, but involves the death of a team member.' And Jeremy was like, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' ... He was smart not to take the short paycheck for three days of work and getting blown up."
Indeed, given that Renner's work schedule freed up considerably following the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019, he was absolutely right to keep his options open to return to Mission: Impossible - even if that doesn't appear to be happening.