Credit: Marvel Studios (L) / Paramount Pictures (R)Information has finally been revealed about the decision behind Tom Cruise’s Iron Man.
Iron Man is one of the most recognizable characters in pop culture. Beginning life on the pages of Marvel Comics, Iron Man became a central figure in Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe 45 years after his inception in 1963.
It would be Robert Downey Jr. who would bring the arrogant and intelligent Tony Stark to fans everywhere when he starred in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in 2008, thus commencing Feige’s long-term interconnected world of the MCU.
Downey Jr. became a staple part of the MCU, starring in Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Downey Jr. would play his final performance in the Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Endgame after Iron Man sacrificed himself to save the universe from Thanos (Josh Brolin).
Since his departure and that of Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers/Captain America, many fans have started to switch off from the MCU, which has seen a general downtrend in interest, viewership, and box office receipts since Phase Four. There was Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), of course, which netted close to $2 billion, and the follow-up, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), which caught the tailwind of the Multiversal exploits of No Way Home, and brought in $900+ million.
Overall, however, Phase Four, and more recently Phase Five, has seen superhero fatigue truly set in, so much so that Marvel Studios have called for a complete overhaul of its TV biz. So far, only Secret Invasion and the currently airing Loki Season 2 have seen the light of day on Disney+, with many other shows — like Echo, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, and Daredevil: Born Again — being indefinitely delayed.
In terms of the film fare, The Marvels (2023) from director Nia DaCosta and starring Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel), Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau/Photon), and Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel), will debut in November, but its projected opening weekend is leaving little to be desired.
So, it begs the question, can the MCU survive long-term without its legacy actors and characters? Iron Man is gone; Captain America is gone; Black Widow is gone; these superheroes are part of what made the MCU successful in its early history, and without them, can the so-called Multiverse Saga ever be as popular and beloved as it once was?
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Well, signs seem to point to Avengers: Secret Wars (2027), the sixth Avengers film coming after the upcoming installment, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2026), is going to “reboot” the MCU, with some outlets floating the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, eight years since he last appeared.
There have also been theories that Tom Cruise, an actor with ties to the part of Iron Man, will make his MCU debut as a Variant of Iron Man in Secret Wars.
And now, in a recent interview, the Tom Cruise casting decision as Iron Man has been revealed.
“In the newly released “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” [by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards), it’s explained that a then-34-year-old Cruise ‘flirted with the idea of playing [Tony] Stark,'” writes Comic Book Movie.
According to the book, “Cruise’s asking fee at the time was more than even a profitable studio like [20th Century Fox] was willing to risk on an untested superhero property.”
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It seems evident that Cruise would require a high fee, thanks to his work in franchises like Mission: Impossible, and, yes, despite Iron Man being heavily featured in Marvel Comics, the character had yet to make the transition to the big live-action screen. Alas, fans may one day get to see even a cameo of Tom Cruise as Iron Man if the Multiverse Saga theories are anything to go by.
Tom Cruise will soon star in the sequel to Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) from director Christopher McQuarrie, although the feature film has shifted to 2024 and has reportedly lost its Dead Reckoning Part Two tagline.
Would you have liked to see Tom Cruise as Iron Man in the MCU? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!