It is fourteen years since Tom Cruise was reportedly almost cast as the MCU’s Iron Man and following rumors that he may be finally about to get his chance again, a piece of multiverse-inspired fan art has made it so. Before Robert Downey Jr. became THE Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the other names in hot contention to play billionaire playboy and armored hero Tony Stark was the Mission Impossible and Top Gun star, and while it is now unthinkable to consider anyone other than Downey Jr. in the role, the opening up of the Marvel multiverse seems to have propped a window ajar for Cruise to finally be able to take on the character of Stark.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to overtake even Spider-Man: No Way Home in the rumor-mill stakes, with the film set to feature several unexpected “variants” of well-established MCU characters as well as more introductions to new characters from the future of the franchise. This could well mean some of the cameos that were originally expected by fans in the Loki TV series that never materialized will now come to fruition and that means there is a lot to be speculated on.

Thanks to this, digital fan artist Nejraoui has wasted no time in putting together a piece based on the very concept of Cruise stepping up for a cameo as Tony Stark, which he said was inspired by both the story of the actor’s name originally being on the shortlist for the role back in 2008 and the new rumors of him being considered as a possible variant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Although Cruise has previously denied that he just missed out on the role of Iron Man, but rumors have to start somewhere and this one is undoubtedly one that has some time to run before we find out how much of it is true.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness Could Introduce X-Men, Fantastic Four And More.

Marvel pulled off something massive with Spider-Man: No Way Home, uniting the MCU with two previous Spider-Man universes and the current universe occupied by Venom, but in turn, that just increases expectation on what could be coming next in the MCU to keep that kind of momentum going. To misquote a particular Spider-Man character, with great expectation comes great responsibility.

With recent reports having suggested that part of the purpose of recent Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness reshoots was to film additional character introductions and cameos, the scope of what that could mean is huge and far-reaching, even beyond the confines of the MCU itself. James McAvoy recently found himself denying that he is reprising his role of Charles Xavier/Professor X from Fox’s X-Men movies, and the X-Men, along with The Fantastic Four, are two very possible shouts for some of the teased introductions considering both hero groups are expected to be joining the MCU soon.

As for variants of existing heroes, that is a list that could take a very long time to go through. Marvel Studios has gone to some length in the last year to make sure it is clear that there are numerous universes that mirror the MCU timeline, and each of those universes contains their own variants on the heroes and villains we all know. That means the playing field is wide open for anyone to become anyone, and having watched Andrew Garfield, Willem Dafoe and more deny their Spider-Man returns until the bitter end, it is going to be an exciting guessing game as to whole will end up appearing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in May this year.