The bizarre Jeremy Renner official app that descended into chaos: “Everything I detest”
Having been named as the most-searched actor of 2023 by Google, there’s no doubt that a number of people out there wished they had all of the latest updates and information regarding Jeremy Renner handily stored in one place. Alas, that’s precisely what the world was gifted for a brief spell between March 2017 and September 2019, a time just before unsavoury behaviour ruined the fun for everyone.
Available on the Google Play Store for its all-too-brief existence, Jeremy Renner Official would greet the user with a video of the Academy Award-nominated star praising his fans while espousing the virtuous giveaways and important notifications on his everyday life that came as part of the experience. That even extended to the odd livestream and weekly events in the middle of the week, colloquially known as “Happy Rennsday”.
Trying to muscle into the social media market is a tough challenge, but an endorsement from The Ringer that “Jeremy Renner’s Jeremy Renner app is the Jeremy Renner of apps” indicated that the Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstay was in with a shot nonetheless. Effectively Instagram but dedicated entirely to Renner, the somewhat bizarre experience was presumably heavenly for his most enthusiastic of followers, even if the distinct lack of anything even remotely non-Renner content made it about as niche as they come.
Naturally, though, there were downsides to the Renner-specific application. Hoax accounts began popping up with increasing regularity, leading to a vast increase in harassment, bullying, and trolling, with many users attempting to pass themselves off as the real Renner for the sole purpose of belittling or verbally abusing other account holders. In addition, developers Escapex were criticised for passing the app off as being a lot more closely connected to the actor than it really was, with push replies and bots handling the heavy lifting that many believed to come directly from Renner himself.
As tends to be the case with the internet, pornography was, of course, involved. One Deadspin journalist responded to Renner asking how they were spending their weekend by replying “watching porno”, with the boilerplate “Not Cool” response providing a thread that was rapidly untangled by X-rated jokes uncovering the ruse that maybe Renner wasn’t as hands-on as he wanted everyone to believe.
With no verification system in place, literally anybody could pretend to be the genuine Renner and interact with whoever they wanted in whatever way they saw fit, with the rising tide of trolling becoming so intense and all-encompassing that he made a public statement officially designating trolls as the reason why Jeremy Renner Official was being shut down.
Delivering the bad news, Renner knew exactly who to blame: “Due to clever individuals who were able to manipulate ways to impersonate me and others within the app, I have asked ESCAPEX, the company the [sic] runs this app, to shut it down immediately.” he said. “What was supposed to be a place for fans to connect with each other has turned into a place that is everything I detest and can’t or won’t condone. My sincere apologies for this to have not turned out the way it was intended.”
For a brief, glorious moment, the world had a dedicated app for Jeremy Renner, but some things aren’t built to last. Once again, a small band of trolls ruined it for everyone, and the fact he became so heavily Googled throughout 2023 increases the irony that all Renner-adjacent information used to be conveniently contained in one place.
