Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed he improvised a major, emotional moment in the Spider-Man: No Way Home finale.
At the end of the film, Tom Holland's Peter Parker finds a way out of the multiversal mess he's found himself in by requesting Doctor Strange wipe everyone's memories of his existence. Strange's emotional response to Peter's decision was actually improvised by Cumberbatch himself.
"[Jon Watts, director] is fantastic. He's got such great taste. He's very detail-orientated as well. He manages the tone so beautifully, all the time, and yet is still so nimble," Cumberbatch said at a Santa Barbara International Film Festival Q&A (H/T Collider). "Great directors are able to throw aside a piece of script or a big set piece and go, 'Oh, maybe that's the story there.' There was this one moment near the end of the film, where we were really trying to make that moment work, at the top of the Statue of Liberty.
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"Tom [Holland] was having a tough time with the script, as it was before the reshoots. And then, we did the reshoots and I came up with this idea of, to show that I love him, I didn't want him to make the sacrifice of being forgotten. He was like, 'That's gonna be in the film.' And I was like, 'Okay, cool. That’s great.'"
Cumberbatch will next play his Marvel character in the upcoming Doctor Strange 2, AKA Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The trailer has already teased multiple potential cameos, but plot specifics are still up in the air.
Next up on the MCU release slate is Moon Knight, which hits Disney Plus this March 30. In the meantime, check out our ultimate guide to Marvel Phase 4 for everything else the MCU has in store for us.
