We have been told, time and again, that Avengers: Infinity War is going to be Thanos' story, with plenty of Marvel superheroes peppered in -- of course. And while we have seen the Mad Titan from the Marvel comic books in a few early MCU scenes -- be it in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie or the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron -- this will be the first movie that has his towering purple presence front and center, in battle, for the full duration. We know that Josh Brolin has been cast as Thanos for Avengers: Infinity War, but now co-star Benedict Cumberbatch explains it's not always Brolin "being" Thanos on screen. The man we also know as Doctor Strange admits:
They used a stand-in for Josh. Josh wasn't in there for much. He did his bit, and then a lot of stuff with a lot of us and him was missing because he was doing, I guess, Deadpool 2 and I was doing Melrose and The Current War. But we made it work. It's often the case, you can't act with other actors anyways, in certain scenarios because of the amount of additional stuff you have to fit in with the environment or the magic or whatever it is that's coming out of your hands or your ass.
This is not Benedict Cumberbatch's first Marvel rodeo. He held down the Doctor Strange origin story, directed by Scott Derrickson, and cameo'd in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok as the Sorcerer Supreme. So he understands that filmmakers on massive properties like this have to rely on cheats every so often, so he admits to Radio Times that the Avengers: Infinity War production worked around the busy schedules by occasionally replacing Brolin when he had to be off shooting something else.
And why not? Sometimes, you just need to shoot a scene of Captain America (Chris Evans) holding off the giant Infinity Gauntlet.
You don't necessarily need Josh Brolin to be present for that. So maybe they found plenty of ways to capture Brolin, but found other ways to work around him? We won't know for sure until we see the finished movie. Still, Benedict Cumberbatch says that working with a stand-in was fine, and he doesn't feel cheated at all by the movie-making cheats, elaborating:
I don't feel robbed of the opportunity, and there's plenty of footage showing there's definitely all of us there.
Juggling all of the superhero and super-villain faces that need to be in Avengers: Infinity War is practically impossible, especially when you think about the reality of juggling the production schedules of every actor in the movie. Benedict Cumberbatch reveals a little bit of the movie magic in this interview. See what else he explains in the full clip below:
Avengers: Infinity War will be in theaters on April 27. We hope it sets up Avengers 4, somehow. To keep track of everything on Marvel's radar, bookmark our Upcoming Marvel Movies Guide, as well.
