Marvel Studios/20th Century Fox
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hit theaters on Friday, May 6.
- The film includes tons of exciting cameos from across the many Marvel universes.
- Writer Michael Waldron recently revealed that they considered including Deadpool in the film.
With the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness now in the rearview mirror, those involved with the making of the film have opened up about its production, including writer Michael Waldron, who also penned the Disney+ series Loki
Warning: this article will contain spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange writers considered including Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Tom Cruise as Iron Man
During a pair of recent interviews, Waldron touched on which Marvel characters the writing team considered including in the film, such as Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool, who is set to make his MCU debut in the coming years:
“Yeah, we talked about it,” Waldron revealed in our interview, which you can check out in the video above. “I think we talked about everything in this movie. So, [it] would’ve been crazy to not raise that, but it ultimately didn’t feel like… It just didn’t feel the right place. But yeah, of course we talked about it,” Waldron told ComicBook of including Deadpool in the film.
Waldron also touched on the infamous Tom Cruise as an alternate universe version of Tom Cruise theory that was floating around the internet, saying that while it never came close to happening, it was briefly discussed with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige:
“Yeah, that was totally made up. 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,” he said to Rolling Stone.
Ultimately, neither of those cameos came to be and the Illuminati consisted of Chiwetel Ejiofor as an alternate Baron Mordo, Lashana Lynch as an alternate Captain Marvel, Haley Atwell as Captain Carter, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, and John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was directed by Spider-Man filmmaker Sam Raimi and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams, hit theaters in the United States on Friday, May 6.
Multiverse of Madness will be the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film of 2022, followed by Thor: Love and Thunder on July 8 and then Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on November 11. There’s also the bevy of TV series hitting Disney+ — such as Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and season two of What If…? — this year.
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