‘This Wasn’t For Sure:’ Mayor Of Kingstown’s Hugh Dillon Candidly Told Me How He Prepared For Jeremy Renner’s Return While He Was In Recovery

If you’ve been watching Mayor of Kingstown as new episodes air on the 2024 TV schedule, you have probably noticed that Jeremy Renner is on his A-game. After a near-fatal snowplow accident that seriously injured him, the actor got back to work on the third season of Kingstown about a year after that life-changing scary event. Now, the show’s co-creator Hugh Dillon has opened up about how he prepared for his star's return to work and the optimism that they all needed to have.

When I spoke to Hugh Dillon about Season 2 of Kingstown about a year and a half ago, he recalled the funny NSFW conversation he had with Renner right after his accident that made him realize his friend and co-star would be OK. However, there was still a lot of uncertainty. The Hurt Locker actor had broken over 30 bones in the accident, which he revealed in an interview with ABC, and the road to recovery was long. So, the prospect of getting back to work was intimidating, but they didn’t lose hope, as the co-creator and Ian actor told me:

He was broken. And his mom was, they were very worried, you know, this wasn't for sure. And you're just trying to engage and provide hope. I don't have any answers, but the only thing that I could control was, ‘If you want to do it, we're gonna create something that’s exceptional you know?’ That's all we could do.

So, they created. While both Renner’s injuries and the actors’ and writers’ strikes put an unexpected pause on the show’s progress, they were excited to get back to work. Dillon said it was also his way of helping his friend was to support him and keep moving forward on their show. He said:

You're just trying to, you know, support and comfort and, you just try to tell stupid jokes and just lighten it and provide some kind of positive – I don't know – something, because he was in a wheelchair, his mom's there. It's just, it was just difficult.

It seems like everyone, especially Dillon and Renner, was cautiously optimistic about Season 3 and what was to come. The co-creator went on to tell me that his whole team is really driven and positive. He also believed in his star’s abilities and knew he’d get back to work. He told me:

He's been through so much, but yet, we're all very positive people and, and I'm driven, and I just was like ‘You can do this.’ And I believed in him, you know, it wasn't just pipe dreams. It's like, I believe in him. And I believe in the show, and Taylor Sheridan, and we, you know, the odds are against us in this business anyway. So you kind of have to be an optimist.

That hope and optimism paid off too, The Avengers star was able to do some of his own stunts on the show and bring that swagger his character Mike has back in full force. As Hugh Dillon told me: “holy fuck, he’s back!”

Obviously, Jeremy Renner had to “interject” his own life into the show because he’s still recovering from that frightening accident. He told me during an interview that he “forced myself to interject some limitations of my physical body and all these things.” The Wind River actor didn’t know what he’d be able to do when they started, however, they quickly learned his limits and that he was actually able to get back in action quickly. Overall, he’s thriving and so is the show.

To see Jeremy Renner and Hugh Dillon doing what they do best in Season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown, you can stream new episodes every Sunday with a Paramount+ subscription.