Of all the A-list stars to have never suited up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hanks stood tall as the most surprising omission. Back in October 2023, he revealed on the Smartless podcast that Marvel had NEVER called. Not once. And he wasn’t joking.
“Here’s the problem,” Hanks told host Will Arnett (via Cheat Sheet). “First of all, they’ve never called me once. No, no, never.”
Yeah, never.
That was wild considering this was Tom Hanks. Two-time Oscar winner. Box office royalty since Big, Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump. And while he never auditioned anymore, he definitely hadn’t retired his acting chops. But when it came to the MCU? Total radio silence.
Still, Hanks wasn’t salty. In fact, he already had his ideal Marvel role in mind. And no, it wasn’t a flying cape moment or an alien transformation. It was something way more grounded. And frankly, kind of perfect.
“I think that if one of these days they will and they’ll say, ‘Is there any way you would consider playing the Secretary of Defense? A guy who comes and says, ‘Please, help us all for man. We can’t survive,’” he joked on the podcast. “I’ll be one of those guys. I don’t get to play the punk Kung Fu stuff.”
That’s where the throwback came full circle. Hanks was referring to “those guys”—the elite list of Marvel’s non-superpowered human figures. Think Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, William Hurt’s General Ross, or even Bill Murray’s quirky cameo in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Redford turned out to be a HYDRA agent. Hurt’s Ross became Secretary of State and had recurring roles until Black Widow. Even Garry Shandling’s character popped up across multiple films as a sneaky political figure. These weren’t just cameo fillers. They were plot anchors. Hanks was totally down to be one of those guys – the suit with gravitas, not the spandex.
And while Hanks never threw punches in the MCU, he’d danced around fantasy and sci-fi before. He played Santa and a magical train conductor in The Polar Express. Got futuristic in Cloud Atlas. And, of course, voiced America’s favorite cowboy doll in Toy Story. He even pulled off real-world heroism in Sully, Apollo 13, and Captain Phillips.
So yeah, superhero-adjacent? Absolutely. Superhero-ready? Only if the call ever came.
But the best part? Hanks made it clear he wasn’t desperate. He just found it curious. Marvel built a universe where just about everyone had a role. Yet somehow, Hollywood’s nicest guy hadn’t gotten the nod. The ball, as he said without saying, was in Marvel’s court.
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