Spoiler-prone Mark Ruffalo faces an Avengers quiz while hooked to a lie detector on The Tonight Show
Last time everyone’s favorite Hulk Mark Ruffalo did press for an Avengers movie, well, it didn’t go well. At least not for the Watchers at Marvel, who themselves hulked out a bit when Ruffalo, alongside the more locked-down Don Cheadle, endearingly blurted out the final fate of half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. On Wednesday’s Tonight Show, Ruffalo was working hard guarding against another slip-up, noting that his request to pair up for Avengers: Endgame interviews with current (live-action) Spider-Man and fellow spoiler-happy Avenger Tom Holland were nixed by their Disney overlords even before he finished asking. (He’s being paired up this time with Captain America/Chris Evans, who will presumably be able to keep the laid-back Ruffalo in line before the guaranteed superhero blockbuster sequel drops on April 26.)
Since host Jimmy Fallon had Ruffalo all to himself for the night, however, he did his level best to wheedle some forbidden Avengers knowledge out of his guest with a typically gimmicky gambit. Hooking the sweating Ruffalo up to a supposedly actual lie detector machine, Fallon peppered Ruffalo with questions like, “Is the Hulk really a shape-shifting alien known as a Skrull?” With the machine blinking and scribbling away as Ruffalo squirmed in mock-terror at the increasing probability of getting in big trouble once more, the actor was also as noncommittal as possible about whether his Bruce Banner and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff (that’s Black Widow to you) will ever get together. (Ruffalo also did some energetic butt-wiggling when Fallon, producing a Hulk action figure, asked if he ever “played with himself.” You get it.) But it was Fallon’s question about the ultimate fate of all those heroes who [redacted] out of existence that proved too much for Ruffalo, who, in a special effects gag (inside Fallon’s gimmick), snapped his fingers and [redacted] himself away before he could blow this ending, too.