A ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Writer Really Wanted Tom Cruise To Play An Alternate Universe Version Of One Of The MCU’s Most Beloved Superheroes

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

When the Doctor Strange sequel landed last weekend, viewers nationwide could be heard flipping out over a bevy of Easter Eggy cameos. One sequence in particular had one treat after another. Our hero (Benedict Cumberbatch) winds up in an alternate dimension populated by not only Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, but also some alternate world versions of beloved superheroes. For example, John Krasinski stepped in as a (doomed) Reed Richards.

But had the film’s credited screenwriter had his druthers, the film would have featured a star markedly huger than the star of the eventually ending Jack Ryan. In an interview with Rolling Stone, scribe Michael Waldron said he wanted to a) include an alternate universe Iron Man, and b) he would be played by Tom Cruise.

The first was probably likely, though it might have been a bit too soon given Robert Downey Jr. only bid farewell to the role three years ago. As for getting Cruise, Waldron says he doesn’t think anyone bothered even reaching out to him, possibly because he was a little busy on one of the longest and most pandemic-delay-plagued shoots in Hollywood history: the next Mission: Impossible joint.

That said, it’s not like Cruise is above fun cameos or smaller, scene-stealing roles, especially if he gets to look nothing like himself. Speaking of the latter, had he been courted — and then accepted — it would have been a Tropic Thunder reunion, sort of, not quite.