bash: Dealing with filenames with double spaces in them

if I echo a filename with double spaces without putting it in quotes it turns that double into a single, probably because spaces signify args.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/273660/how-do-i-echo-a-string-with-multiple-spaces-in-bash-untouched

remove_double="`echo "$thumbnail_orig" | sed 's/  */ /g'`";