Samuel L. Jackson Trolled Us All With A Fake Fact About Captain Marvel's Powers
Who says guy behind the head of the world's most powerful (fictional) counter-terrorism and intelligence agency can't have a little fun now and then?
In the months leading up to the March 8 launch of Captain Marvel, Nick Fury actor Samuel L. Jackson constantly hyped up the titular superhero's incredible abilities. Chatting with Entertainment Tonight in January, Jackson called Brie Larson's Captain Marvel the most powerful character the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen, a cosmic-charged firecracker of a hero who's the only person strong enough to take down the universe-decimating Thanos (Josh Brolin), and "one of the few people in the Marvel universe that can time travel."
Captain Marvel rising to take the throne as the strongest MCU hero is nothing new, as Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige previously promised that the character would do exactly that once her standalone flick opened in theaters and proved to audiences everywhere that her "powers are off the charts." But time travel? Time travel? Could the former-Air-Force-pilot-turned-Kree-warrior Carol Danvers really have the ability to bounce through time, and would fans get to see it in Captain Marvel and then again in Avengers: Endgame, a film she's confirmed to appear in?
At the time, Jackson's remark about Captain Marvel's time-traveling skills seemed a little flippant but not out of the realm of reality, considering what we already know about the intensity of Carol's powers and remembering that a hugely popular Endgame fan theory suggests that Earth's Mightiest Heroes will travel back in time to either reverse or negate Thanos' Snap that took place at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
As it turns out, though, Jackson completely trolled us.
Captain Marvel can't time travel, and Jackson has since admitted to straight-up lying about the hero's powers.
In an interview with KROQ's The Kevin & Bean Show, Larson revealed that Jackson flat-out made things up about Captain Marvel. With cool-as-a-cucumber attitude and a slight smile on his face, Jackson came clean about his antics.
"I made stuff up. I said she could time travel one time," he said, agreeing with Larson in saying that particular comment about Captain Marvel's abilities was pretty confusing.
When asked if there was anything the cast, including Talos actor Ben Mendelsohn and Agent Phil Coulson actor Clark Gregg, could dish about the film, Larson joked that now was her chance to "spoil it all" and asked her castmates how many bombshells they could drop in one go. Gregg teased that they should keep the time travel lie going, while Jackson laughed that he could "make up some more s***."
One very true fact about Captain Marvel that sounds fake also directly from Jackson's mouth: a ton of celebrities wanted to be in Captain Marvel, but the bigwigs at Marvel Studios had to decline their requests for starring roles and instead offer them the chance to cameo as Skrulls, the race of shape-shifting aliens in conflict with the Kree and the people of Earth. The Captain Marvel foursome quickly pushed the envelope on the truth and joked that every single Skrull featured in the film is played by an Academy Award-winning actor.
"Every Skrull you see has won an Oscar," Gregg said, to which Jackson fake-confirmed, "Yes, every Skrull. That's all we can say. They're all award-winners, but they're all Skrulling." Larson then quipped, "Some are BAFTA-winners ... one was actually a cat in Cats on Broadway, the original cast."
Clearly, the Captain Marvel crew knows how to have fun during long press junkets. Oftentimes, Marvel actors cycle through the same types of questions about their particular film, the characters they play and the hero at the forefront, and how the events of their standalone will connect to what fans have already witnessed in the MCU and how it will shape what's yet to come. We can't exactly blame Jackson for subtly trolling Marvelites — one, because we can imagine that he wanted to add a dash of excitement to the same old, same old stuff of press circuits; and two, because, as evidenced by their interview with The Kevin & Bean Show, there's great banter between the Captain Marvel cast, and joking around seems to come naturally to them all.
That countless Marvel fans out there were convinced that Jackson's word was gospel simply because he said it shows just how much trust audiences put into actors, particularly when it comes to gathering information ahead of a film's release. Instead of scouring the web for details, examining every last second of every interview, and taking everything Marvel actors say at face value, fans would be wise to take a breather, remember that actors are people too, and wait until a movie actually launches to find out what's true and what's a bunch of verbal bologna.
Even though he fooled many of us into thinking Captain Marvel could travel through time, Jackson has genuine love and respect for the character — and for Larson for bringing her to life.
"She has a lot of compassion, for one. She's a very principled individual, as you can see from her [Instagram]. She champions all of the right causes. She's very aware of who she is and her place in the universe, in terms of what she is as a person of influence [being] an actress and her voice being used in the right way," Jackson once said of Larson. "She's totally dedicated to making [Captain Marvel] something, and the way she empowers women already, you know that she is going to give this character the qualities that will make any woman, young girl, anybody looking at this wish they could be her or feel like they could, because they have the ability."
Excuse us, we have something in our eye. Pass the tissues, please!
Captain Marvel is in theaters now.