Spider-Man: No Way Home Stars React to Working With Benedict Cumberbatch
The stars of Spider-Man: No Way Home have shared their experiences of working with Benedict Cumberbatch. The film is set to follow on from Spider-Man: Far From Home, which saw Tom Holland’s Spider-Man battle against Mysterio after a school trip to Europe. Spider-Man: No Way Home will be hitting cinemas in mid-December, and has smashed recent records for ticket pre-sales.
Cumberbatch will appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home as Doctor Strange. Official trailers have shown that Doctor Strange will have an integral part to play in the next installment of Spider-Man, which will lean into the multiverse theory as a key dimension of its plot. By introducing the multiverse, the film has also been able to allow villains from previous versions of Spider-Man to make their return, including Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, and more. The return of previous villains has led fans to speculate on the return of previous versions of Spider-Man, though despite hints and leaks, this has been denied by all involved with the film.
Now, in comments released by Sony, the cast of the upcoming Spider-Man film have spoken about working with Cumberbatch. Jacob Batalon, who plays Peter Parker’s best friend Ned, said that working with Cumberbatch was “literally a dream,” while Zendaya described the actor as “so lovely.” Holland, who has worked with Cumberbatch on numerous projects, referred to him as a “good friend.” Check out the actors’ full comments below:
Batalon: Benedict is such a fun, great, nice person. And it’s been such a pleasure to watch him work as well. He’s, like, so professional and so funny at the same time. It’s literally a dream. It’s surreal to even talk about this.
Holland: It’s amazing. Benedict is a good friend of mine. I’ve worked with him a whole bunch of times on different projects, so to do it on a Spider-Man movie with Doctor Strange, obviously Benedict, is fantastic and a real pleasure.
Zendaya: Benedict is so lovely and I actually have a picture of him skateboarding around set between setups and he was so lovely to work with.
Actors often compliment their co-stars when asked; however, it’s clear that Cumberbatch isn’t a difficult actor to work with. With a long career on stage, on TV, and in film, Cumberbatch is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Other than his leading role in the MCU, the actor has appeared in Star Trek, The Hobbit series, Sherlock, and has been nominated for numerous awards. Cumberbatch recently fronted the Netflix western film The Power of the Dog, with critics suggesting that the actor’s performance could bag him a coveted Academy Award.
After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Cumberbatch is set to be one of the MCU’s leading figures. His character, Doctor Strange, is similar to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man with his intelligence and arrogance and seems to be filling the experience gap left in Iron Man’s absence. Cumberbatch’s second MCU solo film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, premieres in May 2022 and will continue to explore the implications of the multiverse on the wider MCU after Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Source: Sony