There is a particular kind of Hollywood comeback where the star returns with a new film and a tan. Jeremy Renner’s version came with 14,000 pounds of snowcat in the backstory and, this month, a cheerful complaint that Marvel forgot to phone. Nearly four years after the New Year’s Day accident at his Nevada home, he is not just on the mend. He is back to arguing about Avengers casting, which is the healthiest sign I know.
What happened on January 1, 2023 is no longer a mystery, and what came after is a better story than anyone dared to hope for that week.
The snowcat accident, without the rumors
On the morning of New Year’s Day 2023, Renner was using his PistenBully snowcat to tow his nephew’s truck out of the snow near his home outside Reno. The machine started rolling toward his nephew; Renner moved to stop it and was pulled under the tracks. Family and neighbors gave first aid until he was airlifted to hospital in critical but stable condition.
The injury list read like a medical textbook: more than 30 broken bones (Emmy Magazine later put it at 38), a collapsed lung, a pierced liver and blunt chest trauma. He went through emergency surgery and spent the next weeks in hospital.
What strikes me, looking back, is how quickly he took the story into his own hands. The first selfie from the hospital bed, bruises and all, came within days, and it did more to calm fans than any statement from a publicist could have. Renner has since put it plainly: “There’s 150 people that are responsible for me not dying.”
Recovering at home, one wheelchair lap at a time
By the second half of January he was home, and posting the recovery gear instead of hiding it. His caption from that period is still the best summary of his attitude: “These 30 plus broken bones will mend, grow stronger, just like the love and bond with family and friends deepens.”
@jeremyrenner Morning workouts, resolutions all changed this particular new years …. Spawned from tragedy for my entire family, and quickly focused into uniting actionable love ❤️ I want to thank EVERYONE for their messages and thoughtfulness for my family and I …. Much …
His Marvel friends turned up early. Evangeline Lilly said she expected to sit by his bed and instead found him rolling around the house in a wheelchair. “He’s made of something really tough that guy”, Lilly said. Paul Rudd’s report was shorter: “He’s doing alright. He’s doing well…He’s the best guy and he’s awesome”.
In April 2023 he sat down with Diane Sawyer for ABC and walked the Disney+ premiere of Rennervations, his series about turning old vehicles into community projects. Doctors and fans had been told to expect a long, quiet year. He gave them a red carpet within four months (slowly, with a cane, which only made it better). Here is my read: he decided early that the recovery would be public, and that choice made it a story about grit rather than pity.
Back at work: Kingstown, Knives Out and a memoir
The real test was a set. On January 9, 2024 he wrote on Instagram: “Day one on set … nervous today.” He was back as Mike McLusky in Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown, and told Good Morning America that starting at the beginning of the year was “a little dicey” strength-wise. Emmy Magazine reported that the crew greeted him with a standing ovation.
In spring 2024 came My Next Breath, his memoir of the accident, his childhood and fatherhood, followed by a book tour. Then his first film role since the accident: Dr. Nat Sharp in Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which reached Netflix on December 12, 2025. A whodunit set in a church is an elegant choice for a man who, by his own account, should not have survived January 2023. I suspect he enjoyed the irony more than anyone.
2026: from patient to advocate
This year the accident has turned into a cause. In March 2026 he gave the closing keynote at the HIMSS26 health conference in Las Vegas, describing how his care teams failed to share information. In April he announced he had become a partner and investor in RapidSOS, an emergency-response company that works with 911 centers. “I personally hate AI, but I’m an actor,” he told Fortune, before getting to the point: “We want AI used to save time, to save lives.”
I usually roll my eyes at celebrity tech investments. This one I believe, because he is the case study.
And Hawkeye?
In October 2026 Renner confirmed he is not in Avengers: Doomsday, due in theaters on December 18. “No, no, no, no. Not in that one,” he said in an interview clip, adding: “They didn’t call me, so it’s their fault.” He also predicted that without Hawkeye “the Avengers will probably lose, just so you know.” In 2025 he told Empire he was getting his body ready for the role again and was “sure” there would be a second season of Hawkeye; Marvel has not announced one.
For context: Renner is a two-time Oscar nominee, for The Hurt Locker and The Town, and has played Clint Barton across the Avengers films and the 2021 Hawkeye series, alongside co-stars like Zoe Saldana.
My take
In February 2023 the question was whether Jeremy Renner would walk normally again. In October 2026 the question is whether Marvel will call. That is the whole recovery in two sentences, and I’ll take a man joking about being left out of a superhero movie over any inspirational poster. If the Avengers lose in December, we were warned.
Sources
- Jeremy Renner on Instagram (@jeremyrenner), January 2023
- Video: Evangeline Lilly and Paul Rudd on Renner’s recovery (YouTube)
- Fortune: Jeremy Renner is betting on the tech that could have saved his life faster (April 15, 2026)
- Variety: Renner says Avengers: Doomsday heroes “will probably lose” without Hawkeye (October 2026)
- MobiHealthNews: Renner’s HIMSS26 keynote (March 2026)
- Television Academy / Emmy Magazine: Renner’s return to Mayor of Kingstown (2024)
- Yahoo: Renner says returning to Mayor of Kingstown was “a little dicey” (May 2024)
- Tom’s Guide: Wake Up Dead Man Netflix release and cast
- NPR: Jeremy Renner hospitalized after accident while plowing snow (January 2, 2023)
