Who Was Daniel Craig Supposed To Play In ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’?

At this point, if you care at all about the Marvel universe, you’ve probably seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or at least have heard about its myriad cameos. But spoilers follow regardless.

The film reaches a point in an alternate universe where Doctor Strange and America Chavez are captured by The Illuminati, a collection of superhero leaders, many of whom don’t exist in Earth 616, or at least, not yet. This was a treasure trove of cameos which included:

• Anson Mount as Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans, reprising the role from the ill-fated Inhumans ABC series.
• Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, an alt-universe version of Captain America, seen in animated form in What If…?
• Lashana Lynch as Captain Marvel, in a world where Maria Rambeau took on the mantle instead of Carol Danvers.
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X, reprising his FOX role with an X-Men animated series-style chair.
• John Krasinski as Mister Fantastic, bringing a long-held fancasting dream to life.

And then Scarlet Witch came and murdered them all.

However, there are new reports, some of which are conflicting, that one of the ideas that was scrapped for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was a cameo from none other than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. But no uh, James Bond was not in the Illuminati.

There are really two reports here. One is that Craig was originally the first choice to play Mister Fantastic, but dropped out due to COVID spikes, and as such John Krasinski was brought in as a second choice. Not sure if true, what that might do to Krasinski’s chances to keep the role for the actual Fantastic Four movie coming up if he was only slotted in as an alternate.

The other report is that Craig was actually supposed to play Balder the Brave. You will notice that there is no “alternate Thor” in the Illuminati here, and the concept was that they were going to pull Balder from the comics for that slot. And he was meant to be played by Craig. In the comics, Balder is Thor’s half-brother and the two frequently fought side by side.

I’m not sure which of these is true. To me, casting Craig as Balder makes more sense, as it’s easier to see him in that role than as Reed Richards. But I also can see why Balder would have been cut, as I don’t think it would have made as much of an impact as the other cameos. It would have been more like “why is Daniel Craig dressed up as Thor?” For the MCU’s part, Loki probably would have made more sense as an alternate Thor. Instead, they just didn’t have anyone.

Again, we have no concrete data on what will happen with the Fantastic Four movie. That may be fluid, but given how well Krasinski’s cameo was received, I’d be pretty shocked if they didn’t go with him in the end, but we’ll have to see. As for Daniel Craig, even if he retires from being James Bond soon, I’m not sure where and how he might land in the MCU someday.

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