Cobie Smulders on camaraderie between 'Avengers' and 'Star Wars': 'We understand not wanting to let the fans down'

For those who are new to the action sci-fi genre, a quick preface: The Marvel universe and that of "Star Wars" will never intersect. One documents the ancient battles of a far-off galaxy an undisclosed number of years ago. Way before Jesus and probably before dinosaurs. The other is, like, today, right now, but with Chris Evans running up and down Manhattan brandishing a shield.

In other words, even though "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" may sound comparable to those unfamiliar with the franchises, they are very different. There will never (please, God, never) be any sort of crossover franchise that blends these worlds together. Which means that the "Avengers" and "Star Wars" casts will never work together as one unit -- but there's definitely no real-life war brewing between the actors, said Cobie Smulders, who plays Maria Hill in the Marvel universe.

"There's no 'my team, your team' kind of mentality," Smulders told AOL while in New York for Frito-Lay Variety Packs' second annual Dreamvention contest. "I think if anything, we understand the pressure of being in one of these films and not wanting to let the fans down. And that can be a lot of pressure -- you know how many people are expecting to see these movies."

Smulders and her husband, "Saturday Night Live" alum Taran Killam, couldn't have been more excited to see "The Last Jedi" at its Los Angeles premiere. "It's such a good movie," Smulders said. "I didn't grow up on [Star Wars]; my husband did, obsessively, so I think that's a testament to how good the movies are. There's something in it that's interesting for every age, which is difficult to do."

Difficult, even, for Marvel: "It's a bit more kid-friendly than Marvel -- it's not too violent," she said. (Nor does it feature any bizarre, graphic sex scenes, like 2016's biggest Marvel movie "Deadpool.")

Together, Smulders and Killam have been involved in countless fan-favorite franchises, from Marvel to "SNL" to "Hamilton" and beyond. But the most impassioned and vocal fanbase, Smulders said, is actually that of "How I Met Your Mother."

"Now that it's streaming -- it was on Netflix and now it's on Hulu -- it's something that people are discovering now, even if they didn't watch it when it was airing on CBS," Smulders said. "So there are new fans coming into the mix. And what I find a lot of is foreigners! People from other countries are really obsessed with it. A lot of them are like, 'That's how I learned English!'"

Until the press tour ramps up for 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," Smulders is focused on a very different type of campaign: The star is encouraging kids to take part in the Frito-Lay Dreamvention contest, where they can submit an invention idea that solves an everyday problem for a chance to win $250,000.