Jeremy Renner is writing a book about horrific snowplow accident

Jeremy Renner “did die” when he was crushed by a snowplow in January 2023, but he “came back, and I came back for a reason, and nothing to do with me.” The actor reflected on the near-fatal accident that left him with blunt chest trauma, 38 broken bones, and some other gnarly injuries at the Red Sea Film Festival today (via Variety), where he continued: “If it was my choice, I’d rather stay. But I came back, and I’m glad I’m back.”

“There’s so many wonderful gifts that come from being tested to your limits of death,” the Avengers actor added. If you’re wondering what some of those are, you’ll be able to read about them in his forthcoming book about the accident, which he said he’s currently in final edits on, even though he “tried to push it away a lot of times.”

Because of his experience, Renner has been in a position to develop a pretty unique philosophy on the meanings of life and death, one that will likely find its way into his upcoming pages. He hints at it a bit as follows: “The freedoms and the gifts bestowed on me because of the great tests, you know, crushing 38 bones and eye comes out… the terrible things that kind of happen in a crushing injury, that’s so nothing at the end of it. I can say that now coming out of it, but great blessings unto the love and support of all the people I have in my life. And there’s nothing better than that—the only thing that matters in my life.”

In the meantime, Renner has tried “EVERY type of therapy” in his recovery, as he wrote last year. (“I’m 25% titanium, so fuck Iron Man,” he quipped at the festival.) He’s also been dabbling in the music scene and finally returned to set to work on his Taylor Sheridan series, Mayor Of Kingstown (even though he previously said he was “pretty fucking fragile” at the time), and Rian Johnson’s upcoming Knives Out threequel, Wake Up Dead Man. “It’s a killer cast,” Renner said of the latter project, his first film role since the accident. “We had a ton of fun making it.” The film is set to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2025. No word on a date for the book as of this writing.