Benedict Cumberbatch is an old hand at keeping Marvel secrets, having once seemingly been appointed as a ward over Tom Holland to ensure the Spider-Man actor didn’t accidentally drop any spoilers. When it comes to Spider-Man: No Way Home, the pair have been doing a number of interviews in the run up to the movie’s release in a couple of weeks and of course everyone wants to ask very in depth questions about the events of the film and its impact on the MCU’s future. However, in an interview with USA Today, Cumberbatch revealed that to some degree he can simple not give anything away as he hasn’t actually read the whole script.

"You know it's a dead end, but I can tell you this: It's a riotous film," Benedict Cumberbatch said when asked to divulge some of the movie’s unknown content. "I don't want to give anything away – and I haven't actually read the whole script! I did that on purpose because I just want the ride."

Since his first appearance in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe as the Sorcerer Supreme, Benedict Cumberbatch has progressed from a new character to a central pillar of the franchise, and becoming a kind of mentor and go to source of help to Peter Parker since the death of Tony Stark has brought his character front and center when it comes to the evolution of the multiverse and what is coming in the next couple of years of the Marvel series. When it comes to avoiding spoilers, Cumberbatch has had enough Doctor Strange experience to not fall into any of the traps set by interviewers, but there is no better way to deny knowing anything than to not actually know anything.

Over the years, Marvel have gone to great lengths to take away some of the burden away from actors by only giving out relevant sections of the script, having them record alternative takes or even fake takes, and on occasion film actors individually so they are never actually in the same room together during shooting with the footage then being manipulated as needed in post-production. While there are some intense fans out there who just want to know everything as soon as possible, there is something that comes from excessive Marvel secrecy that usually means when the film is released those who want to go in to the cinema not knowing exactly what is going to happen and how the story will end.

In terms of Spider-Man: No Way Home, we know which old Spider-Man enemies will be featuring, we know that it appears we will finally get to see what causes the multiverse to break out of the Marvel timeline, and we are pretty certain that previous Spider-Men will be featuring in the movie. Beyond that though, there is very little known about the actual story and the twists and turns it is likely to take. Considering the movie’s almost two and a half hour runtime, there is a lot of unknown space to be filled when the film arrives in cinemas on the 17th December.