‘Doctor Strange’ writer wanted to get Tom Cruise to play Iron Man in ‘Multiverse of Madness’
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” screenwriter Michael Waldron admitted that he wanted Tom Cruise to play an alternative version of Iron Man in the movie.
In the latest Marvel adventure, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) travels through the multiverse — multiple universes that have major or minor differences from the main universe audiences have seen so far. A popular fan theory ahead of the movie’s release was that Tom Cruise would portray a version of Iron Man from a different universe.
Many fans thought that Cruise was spotted in the second trailer for the movie fighting the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), but the shot turned out to be of a member of the Illuminati, a secret team of heroes introduced in “Multiverse of Madness.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Waldron addressed the fan theory, and explained that Cruise was never part of the movie.
“Yeah, that was totally made up. I mean, there’s no cut footage of Tom Cruise,” he said. “But I love Tom Cruise, and I said to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] at one point, I was like, ‘Could we get Tom Cruise’s Iron Man?’ I remember reading about that in Ain’t It Cool News back in the day, that Tom Cruise was going to be Iron Man.”
Robert Downey Jr. played Iron Man for 11 years. Marvel Studios
When asked what Feige’s response was, Waldron replied: “Well, I mean, he was shooting ‘Mission Impossible’ 7 and 8.”
Waldron also said that no one from Marvel reached out to Cruise to confirm his schedule.
“I just don’t think it was ever an option, because of availability,” Waldron added.
Cruise was originally slated to play Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr. was cast. In 2005, he told IGN that he turned it down because it “didn’t feel to me like it was gonna work.”
“They came to me at a certain point and, when I do something, I wanna do it right,” Cruise said at the time. “And as it was lining up, it just didn’t feel to me like it was gonna work. I need to be able to make decisions and make the film as great as it can be, and it just didn’t go down that road that way.”This would not be the first time a character was played by a different actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In “Loki,” there were multiple different versions of the titular character, including Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei), who was Black, and Sylvie (played by Sophia Di Martino) who was a woman.
