Benedict Cumberbatch won't reveal MCU secrets to Jimmy Kimmel, but he will castrate your cows

Introducing Benedict Cumberbatch on Thursday’s show, Jimmy Kimmel touted his illustrious guest’s nerd cred, noting that the actor’s been in “four Marvel movies, three Hobbits, and even a Star Trek.” Throw in Sherlock Holmes and a guy who paints psychedelic cats, and that’s pretty much a career, although the acclaimed actor has now also added cowboy to his resumé, just to get all of those little boy dreams out of the way.

Showing a clip of Cumberbatch’s Old West, Montana-accented frontiersman being a jerk to a waiter just trying to serve Cumberbatch’s men some lunch, Kimmel asked if an appropriately rustic twang was the only thing Cumberbatch learned in preparation for the Jane Campion-directed Western, The Power Of The Dog. And boy, was it not, as Cumberbatch—already receiving that coveted Oscar buzz for his portrayal of the film’s sadistic and waiter-baiting rancher—revealed that his three weeks doing preparatory dude ranch duties also taught him everything from banjo-picking, to rope-making, to rolling (too many) one-handed cigarettes, to perhaps even the average rancher’s least-relished duty.

“You learned castration?,” Kimmel squeaked out incredulously, with Cumberbatch merely responding with an ominously terse, “I learned a lot of stuff.” And while Cumberbatch wasn’t forthcoming about just how Method he got when it came time for the apparently necessary ranching step of de-balling enormous cattle, well, the guy didn’t get a Best Actor nomination by playing the dilettante, did he. Cumberbatch noted that the acting prep for his other current release, the artist biopic The Electrical Life Of Lewis Wain (about the 19th century artist whose day-glo cat portraits later became the go-to static entertainment of tripping 1960s hipsters) was stressful in quite a different way. In that herding cats is a lot tougher, as it turns out, than herding cows.

Kimmel, whipping out Cumberbatch’s action figure from the ever-marketable Marvel Universe’s Doctor Strange franchise, segued from taciturn cowpokes and neurotic artists to the eternally buzzed-about MCU. “I must ask you about some Marvel Comics stuff, because it’s my job,” explained Kimmel, with the Marvel-contracted actor promising only that he’d hold onto any spoilers about either Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness or Spider-Man: No Way Home tighter than Strange did that infinity stone. (Sure, Strange had a plan when he coughed the time stone up to Thanos, but, still.)

“Eh,” Cumberbatch shrugged noncommittally to Kimmel’s leading question about fan theories that Strange’s behavior in the Spider-sequel’s trailer is a little, well, strange. (As Kimmel conceded, everybody always thinks everybody is actually demonic Marvel baddie Mephisto in disguise.) “Do they?,” Cumberbatch then asked airily in response to Kimmel relaying the rumor about former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles within Tom Holland’s spider-verse.

And, when Kimmel brought up the fact that Cumberbatch’s The Power Of The Dog costar Kirsten Dunst is hinted to be similarly popping back in as Mary Jane Watson, the Marvel-muzzled actor gave up only a deadpan, “Really?” Thanos is one thing, but, as MCU heroes and villains alike have learned the hard way, the real, terrifying power is in the hands of Disney’s legal department.

The Power of the Dog will be released in select theaters on Nov. 17 and debut on Netflix on Dec. 1.