‘Avengers: Endgame’ stars won’t tell Jimmy Kimmel any film spoilers

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer

April 9, 2019 10:45 AM PT

Jimmy Kimmel took issue with the traumatic events of last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” particularly the “intergalactic genocide” that concluded the blockbuster — events that laid the groundwork for this month’s “Avengers: Endgame.”

So the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” star, who is hosting the film’s stars throughout the week, had the actors recite a kid-friendly version of “Infinity War” on Monday. It was aptly called “’Twas the Mad Titan Thanos,” referring to Josh Brolin’s big bad of both films.

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In a bit styled after Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” segment, “Avengers” actors Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans took turns reading the children’s book adaptation in what Ruffalo called “Intellectual Dialectal Theater of the Absurd.”

And if you thought fans weren’t pleased about the events of “Infinity War,” the actors weren’t so happy about them either, ranting about how War Machine didn’t get to go to Wakanda, Hawkeye was omitted from the film, and how Thor (Hemsworth) and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) botched their takedowns of Thanos — delivered in expletive-laden asides about the film and ill-constructed rhymes in the book they were reading.

Monday’s lengthy interview portion of the show included Johansson, Hemsworth, Paul Rudd and Robert Downey Jr., who talked about their matching tattoos and going to the Disneyland Resort last week.

The Marvel veterans have made deflecting questions and guarding spoilers from the famously secretive films something of a competitive sport, and again talked their way around the movie’s plot points. Kimmel, who hoped to entrap Rudd, did manage to get the actor to address a viral fan theory about his character, Ant-Man, using an — ahem — unconventional method to destroy Thanos.

“You know this one, Paul?” Kimmel asked. “That Ant-Man will shrink down and go into Thanos’ butt?”

“Yeah,” Rudd quipped. “Look, these lips are sealed.”

“Avengers: Endgame,” which has been breaking advance ticket sales records, hits theaters on April 26.