The Illuminati In MCU Explained - What To Expect!

3. Those Tom Cruise Rumours

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Illuminati
Marvel Studios

As fans, we love a good dollop of rumour and innuendo, and one huge piece of speculation coming out of this latest Multiverse of Madness footage is that Tom Cruise will be playing Superior Iron Man in the picture.

What is such speculation based on? In reality, a blurry shot of a glowing, flying figure who, depending on how much you squint, may or may not have a goatee. Oh, and reported 'leaks' from the film.

In a fun piece of trivia, Cruise was actually in line to play the Armoured Avenger years ago. With attempts made to get an Iron Man film up and running as far back as 1990, the late '90s saw The Cruise show interest in producing and starring in a big-screen Tony Stark offering - to the point that he himself commissioned Stan Lee and I, Robot's Jeff Vintar to work on a script for that movie.

There were tentative talks with the Mission: Impossible star later down the line ahead of Iron Man finally hitting the silver screen in 2008. At that time, Cruise was reluctant to commit to the role, whilst director Jon Favreau envisioned Robert Downey Jr. as his Stark.

As alluded to, there's zero confirmation right now that Tom Cruise is in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or that any variation of Tony Stark is in the film. Still, that hasn't stopped the speculation of this from running wild.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.