Tom Hanks addresses if he will ever join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he sounds open to the idea. Marvel Studios has had little trouble attracting top-level talent to join the MCU over the years. While Phase 1 put riskier casting choices like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth in lead roles, Hollywood veterans like Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Bridges, William Hurt, Tim Roth, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, and more joined. By the time Avengers: Endgame hit theaters in 2019, the MCU was easily securing Oscar-winners and some of Hollywood's biggest rising stars to give the movies incredible star power.
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Thanks to the continued popularity of the MCU movies, Phase 4 has managed to keep bringing major actors into the fold. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings landed Tony Leung as Wenwu and brought back Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery. Black Widow got Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz to join Scarlett Johansson, while Eternals featured an incredible cast with notable stars in Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness got John Krasinski to cameo as Reed Richards and returned Patrick Stewart to the role of Professor X, and Thor: Love and Thunder got Christian Bale to play Gorr the God Butcher.
The lure of the MCU is now upon legendary actor Hanks. During an interview with Josh Horowitz and the Happy Sad Confused Podcast to promote his upcoming work in Disney's live-action Pinocchio movie, Hanks was asked about possibly joining the MCU. He reaffirmed that Marvel Studios has never approached him about being in one of their projects, but Hanks is open to it. He compared the prospect of joining the MCU to a John Ford western due to each dominating Hollywood in such a significant way for a long period of time, saying, "You can maybe say that the John Ford universe of westerns is not that different, perhaps, than the Marvel universe of motion pictures. If it's a bodacious John Ford western, would you do it?" Hanks concluded his comparison by saying, "You might do that."
Last year, Hanks confirmed Marvel Studios never approached him about being part of the MCU. While his latest comments do not point to the two-time Oscar winner desperately wanting to join the franchise, he does at least appear open to the possibility. Hanks went on to mention that he has not seen every MCU movie but has never walked away from not admiring the work and the performances. With him back in the Disney fold for Pinocchio, there is a chance that a meeting with Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios team will take place at some point to see if a role can be found for Hanks.
There have been various calls for Hanks to join the MCU over the years. One of the most popular suggestions was for him to play Uncle Ben for Tom Holland's Spider-Man. This did not come to pass in the MCU's first Spider-Man trilogy, so Spider-Man 4 would have to be where this changes. Hanks could also potentially play someone like Professor X or become the voice of Galactus. Thanks to the massive Multiverse Saga slate, there is no shortage of projects for Hanks to join and roles to play. Now it is just a matter of seeing whether Marvel convinces him to join the MCU.