Avengers Assembled To Visit Jeremy Renner After His Tragic Accident

The original Avengers are assembling to visit their friend Jeremy Renner, who is still recovering from a life-threatening injury.

According to a cover story interview with Variety, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans went to support their friend and MCU co-star Renner — who plays Hawkeye in the cinematic universe — in the hospital in April of 2023, roughly three months after the actor was crushed by a snowcat weighing 7 tons as he tried to rescue his nephew from an enormous snowbank. Renner suffered from blunt chest trauma and broke over 30 different bones during the accident. The actor was vacationing in Tahoe when the incident happened; initially, it didn't seem like a sure thing as to whether or not he'd recover, and he was placed in critical condition during the immediate aftermath. Now, he's in the clear... and reconnecting with his fellow Avengers.

"I was honestly so f**king happy to see him. I didn't know if I was ever going to see him again," Johansson told Variety. "To not only see him again but to see him thriving and in such an amazing space, mentally. He's a very spiritual person in general and a very soulful person. And you can see that in his work. It comes through. He has such a depth to him. And I just was so happy to see that he is full of life and light, and he's also hilarious. We laughed a lot."

Evans also spoke to Variety about visiting Renner, saying that visiting his friend and colleague was a pure joy. "No tears at all," Evans revealed. "A lot of laughs and smiles and hugs. Leave it to Jeremy to take something this potentially tragic and turn it into something so inspiring."

Johansson backed Evans up, saying that even shortly after the accident, Renner was joking around with his MCU co-stars on a group text. Upon hearing news of the accident while she was filming a project with Channing Tatum, Johansson said she was "very upset," but Renner managed to find the funny side of everything as his condition improved. ""I was very upset," she remembers. But as Renner's prognosis quickly improved, she and her fellow Avengers began joking with their convalescing cohort. "On the Avengers text chain, we're like, 'OK, you beat us all. That's it. You won,'" she said, referring to a chain that apparently includes Johansson, Renner, Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo. "That's like real superhero stuff. It's unbelievable." This isn't surprising; after the news broke, several of Renner's MCU friends took to social media to send good wishes and lend their support, including Evangeline Lilly, Paul Bettany, severan franchise directors like Joe and Anthony Russo, and many more.

After a few months of recovery, Renner sat down with anchorwoman Diane Sawyer for his first interview, and revealed some of the scarier moments of the accident and immediate aftermath. Speaking to his fears about how he could even possibly recover, Renner gave fans a look into his thought process in the wake of the snowcat incident: "What's my body going to look like? "Am I just going to be a spine and a brain, like a science experiment?"

That said, Renner also told Sawyer that his will to live is what got him through the hardest times of his injury and subsequent recovery. "I chose to survive," he said during the interview. "That's not gonna kill me, no way. I've lost a lot of flesh and bone in this experience, but I've been refueled and refilled with love and titanium."

Renner's still got plenty in the pipeline, accident notwithstanding. His series "The Mayor of Kingstown" is still going strong on Paramount+, and his documentary series "Rennervations," where he helps communities across the world remodel and revitalize old vehicles, is streaming on Disney+ now — and not only that, but Renner said this series in particular was a huge motivation during his recovery. Renner will be back as Hawkeye before long, and it's a testament to this real-life superhero that he underwent a dangerous rescue mission and lived to tell the tale.