Much was made of Hawkeye’s absence from Avengers: Infinity War, especially since he appeared in the film’s earliest promotional artwork. Now Jon Hamm has revealed that actor Jeremy Renner’s injuries on another film's set may have had something to do with it.

It turns out that at the same time that filming was going on in Atlanta on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, Renner was also filming another film nearby. The film is Tag, in which a group of friends participates in an instance of the titular childhood game where the grown adults participating take it way too seriously and increasingly way too far.

Hamm is one of Renner’s co-stars in Tag and revealed that Renner broke both arms very early on in the film’s production.

"Jeremy Renner... broke both of his arms on the same time,” Hamm revealed on Ellen. “Day three of production. We had 40 more days to go. Keep in mind this is a man who's done a hundred Avengers movies and been fine. And he does a movie about playing tag... both arms, like firewood, just snapped like a matchstick."

Hawkeye supposedly retired from the superhero game after Captain America broke him out of the Raft in Captain America: Civil War, giving him more time to spend with the family that was revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Could Renner's injuries actually be the reason that Hawkeye didn’t appear in Avengers: Infinity War? Were the Russo Bros. and Marvel Studios forced to alter their plans for Clint Barton? If so, did Renner’s injuries affect how much screen time Hawkeye gets in the sequel?

While that’s all speculation, it's an interesting coincidence if nothing else. The filmmakers behind the Avengers movies have promised that characters whose roles were minimized in Infinity War will have more to do in the sequel. For many Marvel fans, this hopefully means more time for the avenging archer to shine.

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5th, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

[H/T] Express