SMALLVILLE Creators Spent a Year on a Pre-MCU IRON MAN Script with Tom Cruise as Tony Stark
Before Iron Man kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe and made Robert Downey Jr. synonymous with Tony Stark, the creators of Wednesday were working on a very different version of the armored Avenger, one that could have starred Tom Cruise.
Al Gough and Miles Millar, the duo behind Smallville and Netflix’s Wednesday, revealed that they were approached to write an Iron Man script shortly after their work on Spider-Man 2.
"[Marvel Studios founder] Avi Arad had come to us after [we wrote the story on] Spider-Man 2," Gough recalled in an interview with Happy Sad Confused.
"After Spider-Man 2, they say, 'guys, we've got another crown jewel – which is Iron Man,'" Millar added.
Back then, Iron Man wasn’t part of a billion-dollar juggernaut. Marvel Studios was still in its early days, and the film rights were actually with New Line Cinema, not Marvel, in much the same way Sony still holds the rights to Spider-Man.
Gough admitted, "To be honest with you, I hadn't heard of Iron Man. Avi said, 'Perfect. Here's what he is: he's a billionaire who sells weapons, he's got an alcohol problem. There was an accident, now he's trying to make it work, make it better.'"
The pair dove in and worked on multiple drafts over the course of a year. "We went in with Kevin [Feige] and Avi, and I guess [New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye] had read it. It's an interesting thing with generations trying to still connect with what a superhero is.
“He got all tied up that Iron Man could fly, because Superman could fly… we all sort of walked out of the meeting like, 'We don't think this is going to happen here.'"
Eventually, Marvel got the rights back, Downey Jr. brought Stark to life, and the MCU was born. But according to Millar, New Line’s vision for the role was very different.
"They wanted Tom Cruise, and I think Cruise was interested," he revealed.
It’s still wild to imagine an alternate Marvel timeline where Cruise was suiting up in the red-and-gold armor years before the MCU existed.