The recently released Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features a variety of cameos, including the introduction of The Illuminati, a group that has a long history in the world of Marvel Comics, but not so much in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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In the film, after Strange arrives in an alternative universe and is captured by that universe’s Mordo, he’s taken to The Illuminati, a group that consists of Mordo, Captain Marvel (played by Lashana Lynch), Captain Carter (played by Haley Atwell), Black Bolt, Professor X (played by Patrick Stewart), and perhaps the biggest cameo of the bunch, Reed Richards, also known as Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, played by none other than John Krasinski.
While the inclusion of Krasinski — someone who fans have been hoping would play the official Reed Richards in the upcoming Fantastic Four film — was huge, according to Deadline’s Justin Kroll, he wasn’t always set to play the character in the Doctor Strange sequel. In a series of tweets on the film, Kroll revealed that Daniel Craig was actually the first choice to play Reed Richards, but ended up backing out due to the fact that at the time of filming, COVID cases were on the rise again in London and Craig didn’t think it was worth the risk for a quick shoot.
Fun fact, Krasinski wasn’t the first choice, the actor originally set to play the role was all set to shoot but when there was an uptick in COVID cases, he backed out as he was living in London and didn’t think the quick shoot wasn’t worth risk of bringing back COVID to the fam pic.twitter.com/sD9nT0omki
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) May 14, 2022
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Prior to Kroll’s comments, rumors had swirled that Craig was also tapped to play Baldur the Brave, a character that was rumored to appear in the film as a member of the Illuminati as well.