Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. Credits Terrence Howard For His Casting

Robert Downey thanks Terrence Howard, the original actor to play Rhodey in the MCU, for his casting as Tony Stark in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.

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Robert Downey Jr. thanks Terrence Howard, the original actor to play James “Rhodey” Rhodes for his casting in Iron Man. The MCU is known for its preserved continuity, and they’re able to effectively do long-form storytelling by bringing back the same characters, played by the same thespians. However, while recasting is rare in the franchise, there have been a few times that this happened over its 13-year history.

The very first one happened fairly early in the MCU’s institution. Howard debuted the role of Rhodey — Tony Stark’s military friend in Iron Man. By the end of the 2008 Jon Favreau flick, it’s clear that he’s set up to return alongside the principal cast in the sequel. In fact, there was even a tease that he’d get his own suit of armor and become War Machine as he did in the comics. But, that never came to fruition. Instead, Marvel Studios hired Don Cheadle to take over the role in Iron Man 2, and he’s been playing the role since then. Not much is officially known about what motivated the recasting, but between reports and comments from some people involved, there was some behind-the-scenes drama.

More than a decade later, Downey is looking back on the experience of kicking off the MCU in the new book, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (via The Direct). In the book, he opened up about building the franchise over the years. He thanked everyone who made the universe what it is today. Personally, he expressed gratitude towards Howard, who he says was integral in his casting as Tony Stark in Iron Man. Read Downey’s quote below:

While I have your car, I’ll reach way back to day one, and express gratitude to Howard (our original Rhode)’), who was integral to my being cast.

Howard was actually the first actor to board Iron Man since he’s a massive fan of the character. In an interview, he shared that he did help Downey get cast in the film’s headlining role, but didn’t expound on the matter. Instead, he went on to express his grudge over the fact that he was pushed out of Iron Man 2 due to a pay dispute. Allegedly, Downey received such a massive pay raise on the heels of the success of the first film that Marvel Studios couldn’t accommodate his requests for his salary upgrade. The feud is now over; in a 2017 interview, he explained that they both realized that life’s too short to continue fighting and that both of them are making money anyway. Based on Downey’s comments in the new MCU book, it’s safe to say that they’ve also reconnected as friends.

Considering what went down between them after Iron Man, it’s nice of Downey to credit his MCU casting to Howard. In an ideal world, the feud should not have happened in the first place, but it’s nice to know that they’ve put their conflict behind them and decided to move forward as friends. Perhaps, there might even be a way for Howard to return to the MCU as a variant of War Machine from an alternate universe since the multiverse is now established.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/iron-man-robert-downey-jr-terrence-howard-casting/