Aaron Taylor-Johnson sounds relieved he didn’t punch ‘Bullet Train’ co-star Brad Pitt in the face

Hoping you didn’t punch Brad Pitt in the face is a supremely odd thing to hope for; not in the sense that it would be normal to want to punch Brad Pitt in the face, but rather of the satirically low odds that you would ever be in a position where you have to hope for something like not punching Brad Pitt in the face.

Those odds nevertheless came to fruition for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as well as several other cast members of the upcoming action-comedy Bullet Train, which stars Brad Pitt as an assassin by the name of Ladybug who’s sent to collect an important item from a train bound to Kyoto. He finds out very quickly and just as violently that he’s not the only assassin on board.

In an interview with GamesRadar, Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tenet) touched on the film’s stunt dynamics, including its many fight scenes, and expressed relief that there were no mishaps involving his fist and Pitt’s face while on set.

“I get to go toe-to-toe with Brad. As does everybody. We all take a shot at the big man. Everybody gets a nice piece of the pie. We all have our own real juicy bit of action and our own fighting styles. It’s great. Thankfully I didn’t accidentally punch the most beautiful man in the world in the face.”

Bullet Train releases to theaters in the United States on Aug. 5. Beyond that, Marvel fans can look forward to Taylor-Johnson suiting up for the lead role in Sony’s Kraven the Hunter film, releasing in early 2023.