Jeremy Renner has laughed off the “internet trouble” he encountered, after making a joke about female Avenger Black Widow.

The actor, who plays Clint Barton/Hawkeye in the Marvel movies, had issued an apology after calling Scarlett Johansson’s character “a slut” during an interview.

But Jeremy then seemed to suggest there had been too much of a fuss made over his comments during an interview with Conan O’Brien on his talk show.

“It was a joke. I got in a lot of internet trouble,” he explained.

“So I was asked the question, ‘Black Widow has been linked to Hawkeye, Iron Man, Bruce Banner and Captain America. What do you think about that?’ And I said, ‘She sounds like she’s a slut actually.’ I was talking about a fictional character but if you slept with four of the six characters, you’d be a slut.”

In the Marvel comics, the Black Widow is described as a femme fatale, who is romantically linked to a number of superheroes including Hawkeye and Iron Man. However, this has not been shown in the movies.

Chris Evans as Captain America and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Chris Evans as Captain America and Scarlett as Black Widow (Marvel/Disney)

When asked in an earlier video interview about the possibility of a romance between the Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, Jeremy called her “a slut” while co-star Chris Evans added that she’s “a complete whore”, as they both laughed.

Chris, who plays Captain America/Steve Rogers, later apologised and said they responded to a question “in a juvenile and offensive way that rightfully angered some fans”.

Jeremy said he was sorry “that this tasteless joke about a fictional character offended anyway”, adding: “Just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour.”

He said the backlash over his comments would not make him leave Twitter, after Avengers: Age Of Ultron director Joss Whedon logged off the microblogging website following criticism over the female characters in the Marvel sequel.

Conan airs on truTV in the UK, freeview channel 68, from Mondays to Thursdays.