When Doctor Who wanted Tom Hanks to appear as the Doctor

From Big to Forrest Gump to Cast Away and beyond, there are few actors more recognizable than Tom Hanks. And he almost played other iconic roles. While Hanks was speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, it came out that Peter Capaldi, who played the Twelfth Doctor on Doctor Who, lobbied the producers for Hanks to appear as an incarnation of the Doctor.

That didn’t happen, obviously, and Hanks sounds like he thinks it may have been for the best. “That would’ve been a blast, but that’s all, that’s all scheduling I guess. Can’t do every job,” Hanks said.

"And honestly, me as Doctor Who– can you imagine? Can you imagine the outrage? I’m an American, and I’m gonna go over, and I’m gonna jump in that you know, red telephone box, and you know, and either wear a scarf and whatever it is…So imagine the– imagine the cry if I had played world-famous– I would’ve played one of the Daleks, maybe. I would’ve been inside one of those big salt and pepper shakers talking in that automated voice– with an English accent, by the way."

The Doctor does seem like a quintessentially British character. Then again, Daniel Day-Lewis is British and he played Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. Welshman Anthony Hopkins played American president John Quincy Adams in Amistad and Richard Nixon in Nixon. I say mix and match as you please.

Would Tom Hanks join the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

And there are other iconic roles Tom Hanks could play. How about something the Marvel Cinematic Universe? They’re always hiring.

Hanks has a long past with Disney — he’s starring in their live-action remake of Pinocchio as we speak — so it may surprise you to learn that they’ve never called the actor to board the MCU. But Hanks is down for whatever. “The MCU, alright. And it’s got Spider-Man and the X-Mans and all the mans and all the women,” he said. “Look, I haven’t seen them all, I’ll give you that right now. But the ones I’ve seen, I’ve never come away from it without thinking ‘There’s a couple of great performances in there, man, those people really gave their all.’”

"I don’t know how they do that, I do not know. And then, after that, it’s like, ‘Did they examine the theme that I wanted to be seen?’ And I can tell you, all of them are quite good, Josh, they’re all quite good."

At this rate, there will soon be more Marvel TV series and movies than there are actors on Earth, so Hanks will appear in one sooner or later.

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h/t Screenrant