Renner plays Clint Barton, aka HawkEye, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and was last seen helping to save the day in Avengers: Endgame.
But before signing up for that career-redefining role, he turned down the chance to play another.
Speaking to the Life Is Short podcast, he spoke out about turning down the offer to be Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy.
It was Ron Perlman who took the lead in those two movies, before David Harbour stepped in for the doomed 2019 remake.
But it seems Renner was approached first.
“I was just reading the script and [was] like, ‘I don’t get this’,” he said.
“I just couldn’t connect to it. I said, ‘I can’t find a way in [to this character], I don’t know what I’d be doing.’
“So I had to say no.”
The star insisted, however, that there are no hard feelings or regrets.
“No, there’s zero regrets, zero,” he maintained.
“Most of the time it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t do it,’ and it made sense to me.
“Not just Hellboy or whatever it was, and I’m not saying that’s a good or bad movie, it’s not about that… I just wouldn’t have fit there.”
Hellboy came out in 2004 and took just under $100 million at the box office, earning approval from 81% of critics – according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, made even more cash – $160.4 million – and earned an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Things went south when it came to director Neil Marshall’s Harbour-fronted reboot this year, becoming an almighty flop.
The movie – which Perlman was vocally against – made only $46.1 million at the box office and earned a lowly 17% Rotten Tomatoes score.