The feud between the Iron Man stars Terrence Howard and Robert Downey Jr is a very well-known incident to everyone following the MCU canon since the beginning. The infamous incident led to the role of James Rhodes being transferred from Howard to Don Cheadle. Although the character catapulted Cheadle’s stardom in no time, the actor had only got one hour to decide to confirm his role with Marvel Studios.
Terrence Howard played the role of Tony Stark’s dear friend James Rhodes in the first Iron Man movie only to be replaced by Don Cheadle in the sequel and the future of the MCU. But later the Empire star got embroiled in some contractual differences with the studio and eventually lost his role.
How did Don Cheadle get the role in Iron Man 2?
Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes aka War Machine is one of the important characters in the current MCU. He has been there since the start and has been a witness to almost every major incident. But it is interesting how the character got little to no time to decide on such a wide future.
Speaking to The A.V. Club during an interview, the Iron Man 2 actor disclosed that he was at his kid’s laser tag party when Marvel approached him. He got a call from his agent who redirected it to some representative of the MCU who asked Cheadle for the role. Further the actor stated that he only got one hour to decide or the studio would have moved on to somebody else.
“They said, ‘Hey, this is the role. We want you to do this. It’s a six-picture deal.’ I was like, ‘What?! Oh, uh, okay…’ And I’m trying to do the math. I’m like, ‘That’s 11 or 12 years. I’m not sure.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we need to know, because if you’re not saying yes, then we’re gonna move on to the next person. So you’ve got an hour.'”
Further when the actor confessed that when he said to Marvel about his inconvenience to answer such a big question within one hour, they extended it to two. It can be understood that Marvel was absolutely charged up on bringing another Rhodes to the screens as fast as possible.
“An hour to decide 12 years, and a role and parts that I don’t even know, in movies that are coming down that I have no idea what they’ll be, I said, ‘I’m at my kid’s laser tag party right now.’ They said, ‘Oh! Oh, take two hours.’ So generous! So I go back inside, and I’m ducking behind things, playing laser tag, and talking to my wife. I’m like, ‘Should I take a flier on this? Is this something I should do?'”
What happened after this is pretty much known to all. The actor not only took the role but nail it. The Iron Man 3 actor even confessed that he even auditioned for that role before when initially Marvel was searching for a James Rhodes but it didn’t go to him back then and Terence Howard grabbed it.
What happened between Terence Howard and Robert Downey Jr?
After Terence Howard left the MCU following Iron Man, his words made it clear that things didn’t turn out well between him and the studio. Over various interviews, he made it clear that he faced injustice and even the MCU legend Robert Downey Jr owes to him.
According to the Prisoners star, it was he who agreed to a lower paycheck so that Marvel hire Downey Jr. If his words are to be believed Marvel was reluctant to cast Robert Downey Jr in the first place. But later on, the Sherlock Holmes star turned into a sensation and one of the most favorite stars of all time. He even turned out to be one of the most-paid actors. Howard expressed that the friend he helped didn’t help him back when Marvel refused to agree to his terms:
“It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out… I called my friend, that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back for three months.”
The whole feud ended in 2017 when both parties solved it and Howard told Andy Cohen in his show that “We both realized life’s too short”. But unfortunately, Terrence Howard was lost in the books of history while Don Cheadle is about to get a solo movie of his own very soon in the form of Armor Wars. The actor is also set to appear in the upcoming Marvel Studios Secret Invasion series.
Secret Invasion will be released in 2023 while Armor Wars will also go under production sometime in 2023 only
Source: The A.V. Club
