Tom Holland is the biggest spoiler spiller in the MCU.
It’s hard to mind, because he’s so adorably excited about it all – and because we’re always so thirsty for details. But it’s enough of a problem that he’s not allowed to do press alone, and his co-star and fellow Brit Benedict Cumberbatch has been tasked with keeping him from giving away every Avengers film.
Now, a new look at an old interview with Holland and Cumberbatch during press for Avengers: Infinity War has turned up a little detail that’s a lot more notable now we’ve seen both that film and Ant-Man And The Wasp, and seems to give away a crucial detail about Avengers: Endgame.
When asked by Access Hollywood who flubs the most lines, Cumberbatch owns up: “Me!”
But Holland defends him: “He has to talk about so much Quantum Realm… stuff.”
“Stuff, just stuff,” interjects Cumberbatch, almost under his breath, with the resigned air of a man who’s been told to try and keep the adorable puppy from peeing on everything but is already getting out the paper towels.
It’s not nearly as bad as Mark Ruffalo’s classic “everybody dies”, of course:
But it’s a pretty big confirmation that we’re going to spend a fair bit of time in the Quantum Realm.
(Let’s talk in more detail about this, including spoilers for the second Ant-Man movie.)
The Quantum Realm is the sub-atomic space we were introduced to in Ant-Man, and where Paul Rudd’s character was left stranded at the end of Ant-Man And The Wasp. We learned from that movie that humans stranded there can actually survive there for a long time, as Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Janet Van Dyne, did for decades.
There are plenty of fan theories suggesting that the dusted characters, including both Cumberbatch and Holland’s, might be rescued or revived with the help of the Quantum Realm’s weirdo physics – or that they’re just hanging out there, hopefully avoiding the tardigrade belt.
And it’s also confirmation that Strange, at least, is definitely back on deck sometime in Endgame, and Spider-Man must be as well. Strange didn’t talk about the Quantum Realm in Infinity War, and spoiler-prone Holland is famously not given the scripts other than the pages with his actual scenes – and sometimes he’s not even getting those.
So how would Holland know that Cumberbatch goes on about the Quantum Realm so much, unless they had scenes together in (or talking about) that itty-bitty little psychedelic space?
The silver, black and red colour scheme revealed on some new merch also seems to be inspired by the Ant-Man suit, suggesting there’s some Quantum Realm action going on for everyone.
Look, it’s all wild mass guessing at this point – but May is a long way away, and with so many of our faves still not feeling so good, we’ll take every hopeful clue we can get.
And we’ll probably get most of them from Tom.