Pacific Rim: Why Tom Cruise Missed Out on Its Lead Role

It turns out Pacific Rim originally wanted Tom Cruise for Idris Elba's role.

By Megan Peters

Pacific Rim brought mecha action to theaters some years ago, and director Guillermo del Toro oversaw the franchise's launch. The thrilling blockbuster put actors like Idris Elba on center stage, but as it turns out, there was a big-name star up for the film. After all, Tom Cruise was originally wanted for Pacific Rim, and now del Toro is speaking out on why the deal never went through.

The update comes from the director himself as he attended an anniversary screening of Pacific Rim recently. It was there Collider spoke with del Toro about the film, and the director said the whole crew was stoked to have Cruise in on the movie. But when that plan fell through, Elba made himself known as the perfect replacement.

"Oh yeah. The two models for Pacific Rim, the two models for the screenplay, are Hoosiers with Gene Hackman and Top Gun. So, the part that Idris Elba plays, Tom Cruise was gonna do it, and I even had a karaoke. The deal couldn't be made. He wanted to do it. We were developing stuff, and he couldn't do it. I thought, "You know what? Let's go with Idris Elba then. He's a god." Obviously, I had to rewrite it for that, but I thought it was gonna be an interesting analog to do that. It would have been a lot of fun," he shared.

As you can see, Cruise was onboard for much of Pacific Rim's development process, but the deal could not be seen through. Elba ended up playing the role of Marshal Stacker Pentecost, and it goes without saying his performance was commanding. It is hard to imagine how Pacific Rim would have done without Elba in tow. The British actor brought a refined authority to Pentecost that made him a favorite with fans. And even after all these years, Elba's role here remains a favorite with fans.

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Want to know more about Pacific Rim? You can read up on del Toro's beloved movie below courtesy of its official synopsis: "Long ago, legions of monstrous creatures called Kaiju arose from the sea, bringing with them all-consuming war. To fight the Kaiju, mankind developed giant robots called Jaegers, designed to be piloted by two humans locked together in a neural bridge. However, even the Jaegers are not enough to defeat the Kaiju, and humanity is on the verge of defeat. Mankind's last hope now lies with a washed-up ex-pilot (Charlie Hunnam), an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) and an old, obsolete Jaeger."

What do you think about this latest report regarding Pacific Rim? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!

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