Avengers: Infinity War Is 'Mind-Blowingly Epic,' Says Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch's thoughts on Avengers: Infinity War? "It's just mind-blowingly epic," the actor told Entertainment Weekly.
Cumberbatch, who played Doctor Stephen Strange in the 2016 Marvel Cinematic Universe standalone Doctor Strange and reprises his role for Avengers: Infinity War, spoke with the outlet to reveal what he thinks of the impending superhero mash-up movie.
When asked his first impression of the Avengers: Infinity War script, Cumberbatch admitted that he wasn't actually supposed to have read it, but he did and thought it was incredible.
"This just doesn't stop. Once it starts, it does not stop. It's just this horrible, brilliant, terrifying, at times funny, at times very moving, relentless action. It's like everyone's constantly in crisis, and catching up with themselves, and it's really breathless to read a script like that," Cumberbatch stated. "This isn't a slow burn. You're really thrown in helter-skelter."
The actor clarified that the film won't be a complete action-packed brawl-fest, but that will be its main focus. "It's got a lot of facets to it," said Cumberbatch. "I think the main one for me was just how utterly relentless the events and action were."
As for what Cumberbatch meant when he revealed he wasn't supposed to have read the entire Avengers: Infinity War script, he explained that it's "not Marvel's practice to hand around the whole script of any particular one of their enterprises, especially a film as big as this, and as secret as this." However, Cumberbatch needed a "bit of an overview" of the script to fully understand his character's storyline. "Maybe I'm just a bit more stupid than the other actors involved. I just need a little bit of special care. And they were very sweet, and chained me to something immovable whilst I read it, and unchained me after I finished reading it," the actor said with a laugh.
Cumberbatch may have gotten the full breakdown on what Doctor Strange will get up to in Avengers: Infinity War before he was supposed to, but he can't offer the details to fans. Though, he did mention that because Doctor Strange has "quite an important Infinity Stone ... in his vicinity," that gets him tangled into "other characters' plights" and into the main action of the movie. (Hey, that information is better than none at all, right?)
There are plenty of characters for Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange to get mixed up with in Avengers: Infinity War, including Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Vision (Paul Bettany), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot (Vin Diesel), Drax (Dave Bautista), and Mantis (Pom Klementieff).
Here's the plot synopsis for the film: "As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment–the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain."
Avengers: Infinity War, directed by Captain America: Winter Solider filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo, is set for release on April 27.