There are few people who’ve been in the genre blockbuster game longer than Samuel L. Jackson, who—between Star Wars, various Tarantino movies, and his role in the MCU—knows, probably better than anybody on the planet (who’s not a woman in those same projects, anyway), the kind of irritating shit that nerds can get up to when they’re way too invested in something. Hence, possibly, why he took time out of a press visit to the Captain Marvel set a little while back to drum up a little chaos for all involved.
This is per Uproxx, which reports on a round-table interview Jackson and co-stars Brie Larson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Clark Gregg gave to Kevin Ryder of KROQ’s Kevin & Bean ahead of the film’s big debut this weekend. When asked if any of the movie’s cast had made any Mark Ruffalo=style slip-ups with the film’s plot, Larson immediately turned to Jackson, quickly launching an accusation: “No, you just made stuff up.” Jackson: “I just made stuff up.”
Specifically, they’re referring to a moment from earlier this year, when Jackson casually noted that Captain Marvel can totally “time travel,” and that that would likely have something to do with how she shows up in Avengers: Endgame. “I guess we might figure out that she can do things that nobody else can do,” he said at the time.“She can time travel so maybe she can get ahead or behind or whatever, and figure out what all that is.”
All of which, apparently, was bullshit, offered up on the grounds that you should not bother Samuel L. Jackson while he’s trying to do his job, damn it. “I was just blowing smoke,” he noted, adding that the line was technically a mistake. “We were tired. It was the end of the day. They had a bunch of people on set. You know, those days where they bring reporters to set and you’re working all day and they want you to stop in the middle of the day to go talk to a table full of people for no reason.” Larson, meanwhile, was clearly scandalized, mostly because she’s presumably had to field a bunch of “Why can Captain Marvel time travel?” questions ever since.