Rhodey In Iron Man 2 Was Recast Because Of A Pay Dispute According to Howard, the money promised to him would go to Robert Downey Jr. Essentially, rather than pay Howard the $8 million for Iron Man 2 per his contract, Marvel Studios offered him $1 million instead. But a day later, 's Tony Rico appeared on NBC's Todayand provided the monetary amounts Howard was referring to. In an industry where salary details - especially those concerning huge blockbuster movies like Marvel's - are generally not widely publicized, Howard's revelations were surprising. Of course, it's now been years since the interview featuring the above revelations, so Howard and Downey could have patched up their relationship in the meantime. Related: Iron Man 2 Referenced The MCU's War Machine Recasting Howard's response was unamused, hinting at tensions still existing between the two actors: Cohen asked how things were between Howard and Downey at the time of the episode.
They came to me with the second and said, 'Look, we will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.' And I called my friend - that I helped get the first job - and he didn't call me back for three months."īy the time of the interview it had been years since that encounter (or lack thereof). It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second one, a certain amount for the third. "We did a three-picture deal, so that means that you did the deal ahead of time. Howard elaborated after host Andy Cohen commented, "The word was that you wanted the same money as Downey." According to Howard: The unnamed " he" would be Robert Downey Jr., who was famously paid extraordinary amounts of money for his run as Tony Stark in no fewer than 10 MCU films. when it was time to re-up for the second one, (he) took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out." "It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man.
Speaking on why he didn't return as Rhodey in Iron Man 2, Terrence Howard said: Money played a major part – as it often does in blockbuster filmmaking – but the actor also hinted at other tensions that contributed to him walking away. On the segment, Howard is unsubtle about the reason he left the MCU behind. Terrence Howard Revealed Why He Left Behind Iron Man's Rhodey Howard answered a call-in question about the recasting of his role, and also reflected – not so positively – on the reason he abandoned the MCU. That's until Terrence Howard appeared on season 10 of Bravo's late-night chat show Watch What Happens Live in November 2013. There were brief rumblings regarding the recasting of Rhodey on the release of Iron Man 2 in 2010, as is only natural, but many of the details remained unknown.
Related: Armor Wars Needs To Answer An Iron Man 2 Question Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2, becoming first Iron Patriot and then War Machine, and many fans didn't seem to mind. Howard played Stark's best friend and ally Rhodey, a character who - in the comics - took over for Stark as Iron Man and eventually became a superhero called War Machine. Howard is a respected actor who had been nominated for an Oscar for Hustle & Flow (2005) following his acclaimed turn in Crash (2004). Downey's " genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" Tony Stark would be joined by other charismatic stars in the form of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Brie Larson as Carol Danvers (and many, many more) but Downey remains one of Marvel's most popular - and its highest paid - poster boy.ĭowney's co-star Terrence Howard played Rhodey in Iron Man – a.k.a. Director Jon Favreau's blockbuster Iron Man origin story was a near-perfect introduction to the now-established Marvel Cinematic Universe and not only cemented the comeback of star Robert Downey Jr., but launched him to superstar status.
Iron Man(2008) ushered in the Age of Marvel, and the movie business hasn't been the same since, but one star didn't even return of the sequel: here's why Terrence Howard didn't reprise his role as Rhodey in Iron Man 2.