Screenwriter Michael Waldron recently discussed his work on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in a new interview with Rolling Stone. At one point, Waldron was asked about long-standing rumors that Tom Cruise would play an alternate version of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Although he never actually suited up as the armored Avenger, Cruise began circling the role as early as 1998, years before Robert Downey Jr. brought the character to life in the MCU. Although the rumor didn’t ultimately pan out, Waldron claims that he pushed for Cruise to have a cameo appearance in the sequel.
“Yeah, that was totally made up,” said Waldron. “I mean, there’s no cut footage of Tom Cruise! 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.”
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Waldron clarified that Cruise was too busy shooting the next two Mission: Impossible films back to back. Regardless, his appearance would have been fitting, since Tony Stark is a member of the Illuminati in Marvel’s comic book universe. Regardless, Waldron was still able to assemble a standout team of heroes for this group; and Waldron went on to explain how this particular lineup was chosen.
“The final lineup in that group is beyond my wildest dreams of who we could get — and then dispatch,” added Waldron. “I never dreamed we’d be able to do that. But the lineup is close to, I think, who was originally in my first draft, which was: ‘Okay, I know it can’t actually be this.’ And then it ended up being close to that. It was just a moving target of who’s available and who’s right. It became, ‘All right, if you’re putting together an Illuminati, who would actually need to be in it?’ You’d have people with certain power sets. And we tried to be true to what kind of characters were represented in the Illuminati in the comics.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters everywhere.
Were you hoping to see Tom Cruise show up as Tony Stark in the film? Let us know in the comments down below!
Recommended Reading: Doctor Strange Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird
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