The directors of Avengers: Infinity War have admitted they ducked the chance to include a quip about Sherlock Holmes, according to their movie commentary released yesterday (August 1).
Anthony and Joe Russo considered adding the joke in the scene where Tony Stark (a.k.a. Robert Downey Jr) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) first met in New York, writes The Hollywood Reporter. Both actors have played a certain London-based detective in recent years, but the directors decided against it because it was a bit too meta.
“I should’ve said, ‘No s***, Sherlock,'” said one of the Russo brothers on the Infinity War commentary track. “Everybody really wanted that joke.”
“It’s a meta joke that requires you to be a fan of other movies,” added the other brother.
The first Russo then quickly followed up, “It is also a very obvious joke. Not that we can’t be accused of having made obvious jokes before.”
Awww, see, we would’ve laughed! When it was announced Robert and Benedict’s superhero characters would finally meet in this year’s mega-ensemble Marvel movie, we were excited to see some Holmes on Holmes action. Sure enough, the two “holmies” quickly started joking around on set, posing for silly photos with their co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Wong.
More of the cast’s behind-the-scenes antics were also released yesterday (August 1), to coincide with the film being made available on DVD and as a digital download. The following bonus trailer shows them make on-screen bloopers and fluff their lines, even, in the case of Benedict, when the line is his own name:
An on-screen reference would have been the icing on the cake, in our opinion.
Would you have laughed, or is the joke just too obvious?