Marvel Screenwriter Confirms Tom Cruise/Iron Man Theory

As with any new Marvel movie, the recently-released Marvel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was accompanied by many fan theories before its premiere — including a prominent rumor that Tom Cruise was playing a variant version of Robert Downey Jr.’s character Iron Man in the new movie. Now, a Marvel screenwriter has openly addressed the rumor!

After photos surfaced from the movie’s set that showed someone who looked a lot like Tom Cruise, and after the idea of variants became prevalent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (due to the Marvel show Loki), the Tom Cruise rumor did seem plausible.

Marvel screenwriter Michael Waldron acknowledged the idea in a recent interview, and confirmed that (spoiler alert) Tom Cruise wasn’t actually in the new movie as the character Iron Man — but that he (Waldron) did like the idea for the movie, and had pitched it to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

“Yeah, that [rumor] was totally made up. I mean, there’s no cut footage of Tom Cruise,” Waldron began. “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.”

Many Marvel fans might not know that Tom Cruise was going to play Iron Man instead of Robert Downey Jr. back in 2005. Tom Cruise turned down the role of Iron Man and Tony Stark.

At the time, actor Tom Cruise said that he turned down the role 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,” he had explained. “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.”

For Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, nobody apparently actually went so far as to check with Tom Cruise and pursue the idea. “He was shooting ‘Mission: Impossible’ 7 and 8,” Waldron said. “I just don’t think it was ever an option, because of availability.”

Would you have liked to see Tom Cruise’s take on Tony Stark and Iron Man, especially after the changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that have come about after Loki and the new Doctor Strange sequel?