Actor Jeremy Renner set the online world buzzing this week by mentioning the possibility that he might play Hawkeye, the Avengers' marksman, in both the "Thor" and "Avengers" movies.

When we caught up with Renner on the red carpet for the Independent Film Gotham Awards (where his recent film "The Hurt Locker" received awards for Best Ensemble Performance and Best Feature), the actor offered some clarification of his previous comments regarding Hawkeye, "Thor" and "Avengers" — and why the character of Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, appealed to him.





"The Marvel guys are really smart. They're reall cool," Renner told MTV News. "My buddy Zak Penn is writing 'Avengers,' but that's not for years away. The only reason this even came up is because they're thinking about a little cameo of [Clint] as Hawkeye in there. It's the only reason why I talked to those guys about it."

Of course, we'll forgive Renner's mistake regarding Hawkeye's name sans mask (he referred to the character as "Clive"), since he was so open to discussing the role the character might play in the Marvel movies.

"They thought it was a pretty good idea," he explained of the potential cameo. "They're not sure if they're going to put [Clint] into 'Thor' at all, so it might be later on. It's two years away. They still have to do 'Captain America,' they still have to do 'Thor' ... and 'Iron Man 2' and all those things. But I'd be honored. I think it would be fun."

As for his familiarity with the character, Renner confessed that he wasn't savvy to much of the Marvel universe — but he liked the idea of a non-superhero in the superhero team-up film.

"I liked it because he wasn't a superhero," said Renner. "He's not a guy in tights doing his thing, he's actually just a regular dude with a highly trained set of skills. I think I can actually connect to that. Not just flying around with a codpiece on or something."

Asked whether we should expect to see him in "Thor" and/or "avengers," Renner simply offered "maybe, maybe, maybe..."

"We'll see if Marvel will have me," he said. "The role is there. We'll see if it works out."

Would you like to see Renner as Hawkeye? Let us know what you think in the comment section or on Twitter!