Like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Avengers: Infinity War star Benedict Cumberbatch had the opportunity to see people reacting to his own death, but unfortunately, the actor didn’t take advantage of slightly surreal perk, and he’s lived to regret it.
Speaking to Uproxx, Cumberbatch reflected on the genocidal ending of Doctor Strange’s latest big screen outing, and while this grim finale left a lot of viewers shaken and distraught, it seems that the actor missed the chance to observe the trauma he helped inflict:
“This is my biggest regret of that whole time is that I didn’t sneak in to see people’s reaction. And I wish I had. I really do. I really wish I’d done that. And I think it was such a long press tour, by the time my family got me home I was well and truly on holiday and with them. Or was I working? Geez, I can’t even remember anymore. I think I had a tiny break and then I was riding into doing a TV drama about Brexit.
But yeah, it’s my biggest regret of that whole experience. And there aren’t that many regrets, because it was a wild ride. I mean, just selling that movie by not being able to say anything. But the places we got to go – and it was very cool. I know other people who did it. I think Tom Holland did it. I know Mark Ruffalo took his children, because he then FaceTimed us from the cinema.”
Cumberbatch went on to fondly recall the panic he witnessed in Ruffalo’s video, before explaining how he rubbed salt in his own wife’s wounds:
“His teenage children’s friends are running in the aisles going, “No, what’s happening!?!?” The universe had crashed around him, which is really cruel, but kind of really enjoyable. Do you know what I mean? It’s just great that storytelling in tentpole film of a franchise can have that kind of an impact and kind of a visceral reaction. I love watching stuff with an American audience, because even in a more knowing one, that premiere in L.A. was furnished with people who were making it.
Even me, I was kind of going… And my wife was in shock, you know? She still is. She can’t get over it. I think she really quite fancies Doctor Strange and he’s gone. I said, ‘Baby, he’s gone. There’s no more Doctor Strange. He’s gone. That’s it.’”
The statement echoes a comment recently made by Cumberbatch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, when the star assured the host of the following:
“I’m dust, baby. I’m just out there. I’m in the ether. I’m probably part of your food chain. I’m in your stomach somewhere.”
Of course, while the actor is staying true to the Marvel Studios policy of telling the public nothing, the evidence makes it all too clear that we haven’t seen the last of the Sorcerer Supreme. For one thing, the actor’s spoiler-prone Avengers 4 co-star Tom Holland revealed earlier this year that Stephen Strange will be delivering lines about “so much Quantum Realm stuff,” suggesting that the character’s appearance in next year’s Infinity War sequel will be connected to the mysterious place he briefly visited in his first standalone film.
Between this accidental intel and the fact that Doctor Strange 2 is already confirmed, it’s apparent that Cumberbatch’s run in the MCU doesn’t end with Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, you’ll probably see Strange make a return to the world of the living when Avengers 4 comes out on May 3rd, 2019.