Elizabeth Olsen Reveals Daniel Craig Had a Role in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’
Marvel Studios has never been shy about stacking its multiverse movies with surprise cameos, but not every planned surprise makes it to the final cut. ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ became a prime example of that when it introduced its version of the Illuminati, a lineup packed with alternate versions of familiar heroes drawn from across the multiverse.
Fans immediately clocked that the film’s Earth-838 team felt like it was missing a piece. Rumors had circulated for years that James Bond actor Daniel Craig was attached to play Balder the Brave, the multiversal counterpart to Thor’s half-brother, only for the character to vanish from the finished movie without explanation.
That mystery has finally been put to rest by someone who was actually there. Elizabeth Olsen confirmed on Josh Horowitz’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast that Craig was indeed supposed to appear as Balder the Brave, telling Horowitz the plan had gotten far enough along that a costume had already been built.
“I saw the art. They made a costume. They had a design,” Olsen said on the podcast when Horowitz asked directly about the rumored casting. Her confirmation made her the first member of the film’s main cast to verify what had long been treated as unconfirmed set gossip.
Olsen’s account lines up with details previously shared by Graham Churchyard, the film’s costume designer, who told ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast that the production had gotten very far along in designing Balder’s look before the role was ultimately scrapped. Between Olsen and Churchyard, the pieces of the story now form a fairly complete picture of how close Craig came to joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The mystery deepened further because Craig himself had stayed tight-lipped about the whole situation. When Horowitz previously pressed him about the rumored Marvel appearance on the same podcast, Craig reportedly played coy and denied knowing anything about it, leaving fans with no clear answer until Olsen’s comments filled in the gaps.
It’s worth noting Craig isn’t entirely a stranger to blockbuster franchise cameos outside his own films, having famously popped up as a Stormtrooper in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ A Marvel appearance would have marked a similarly playful crossover moment, making its removal from the final film all the more notable to fans who’d been anticipating it.
Marvel Studios has never officially explained why Craig’s role was cut, and to date, neither the studio nor Craig has offered a public account of what happened behind the scenes. Balder the Brave’s absence became one of several dropped threads from the film’s Illuminati sequence, alongside broader fan speculation about how the roster was assembled and altered during production.
For a movie already packed with surprise casting, from Patrick Stewart’s Professor X to John Krasinski’s Reed Richards, the loss of a Daniel Craig cameo stands out as one of the more tantalizing what-ifs in recent Marvel history. Whether footage of the character ever surfaces remains uncertain, but Olsen’s confirmation at least settles the question of whether the plan was ever real in the first place.
Would you have wanted to see Daniel Craig as Balder the Brave?
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