Karen Gillan Has a Big Doctor Who Regret About Avengers: Endgame

Marvel fans know Karen Gillan as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Before that, she was Amy Pond, the Eleventh Doctor’s companion in Doctor Who. In a new interview, Gillan says she regrets missing an opportunity to bring her experience with Doctor Who to the fore during the filming of Avengers: Endgame.

Endgame deals with time travel and lays out a number of rules about how it works. Notably, it insists that the kinds of rules used in movies like Back to the Future are nonsense. Looking back, Gillan realizes this conversation would have been a good time to mention her own experiences time traveling in the TARDIS on Doctor Who.

“I already had a good grasp of time travel from Doctor Who,” Gillan tells The Los Angeles Times with a laugh. “I’m a time travel expert. I would say it adds up. But they definitely should have listed Doctor Who in that scene where they talk about time traveling movies. I can’t believe I didn’t pitch that in the moment!”

All that time travel resulted in some awkward reunions for Nebula in the film. Gamora, Nebula’s sister, died in Avengers: Infinity War. A younger version of Gamora came to the present via time travel in Endgame, along with a younger Nebula who hadn’t yet experienced the character growth that Nebula prime did.

“There was one Gamora that I dealt with in Endgame who was past-Gamora, and she was just ‘Gamora,’” Gillan says, explaining how she and co-star Zoe Saldana managed to keep track of the different iterations of their characters. “But there were two Nebulas and they were called Good Nebula and Bad Nebula on the set. Me and Zoe are obsessed. We’re so invested at this point, there were always fun discussions to be had while we were filming. It was a really creative experience to show these girls both in the present and the past and show how far they’d come.”

Gillan is expected to return as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The film will see James Gunn, director of the first two Guardians movies, return after Disney reversed it’s controversial decision to remove him from the production. Gillan has said that she’s happy to have the whole Guardians family back together.

Do you think Avengers: Endgame should have name-dropped Doctor Who? Let us know in the comments.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters. Captain Marvel is also still playing in theaters. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.

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