While actor Terrence Howard is now known for his role as Lucius Lyon in the TV show Empire, he has had a sprawling career and even an Oscar nomination. Howard was also the first actor to be cast in the MCU, where he played the role of James Rhodes in Iron Man, which co-starred Robert Downey Jr.
The actor, however, left the role after his first film because Marvel did not want to pay him more as he was the most expensive actor in the franchise yet. He was replaced by Don Cheadle, who has played the role since. Howard has gone on to slam the decision publicly and mentioned that the studio chose to pay Downey Jr. the money instead.
Terrence Howard Was The First Actor Cast In Iron Man
In 2008, Marvel Studios was just starting out as an independent production and had huge ambitions. President Kevin Feige was planning on making a shared universe and it needed to be built on a strong foundation. The studio chose to make a film based on Iron Man, one of the few popular characters that they still had the rights to.
Directed Jon Favreau was strongly campaigning for Robert Downey Jr., but he did not have the best public image at the time due to his personal issues. Hence, the studio needed an actor who would give credibility to the project as well as pull in investors. They tapped into actor Terrence Howard, who had recently received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the film Hustle & Flow.
Howard agreed to play the role of James Rhodes a.k.a Rhodie in Iron Man as he was a huge fan of Marvel comics. He was also promised that he would be donning the suit of War Machine and was also promised more pay with each sequel. Howard was paid $3.5 million for appearing in Iron Man, making him the highest-paid actor among the cast.
Why Was Terrence Howard Fired From The MCU?
After the huge success of Iron Man, which kickstarted the MCU, Marvel Studios quickly commissioned a sequel with the same team, headed by director Jon Favreau. However, Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., decided that there would be some changes in their approach towards the sequel as opposed to their improvisation-filled making of the first one.
One of the first things they did was to hire actor-writer Justin Theroux to write the script for Iron Man 2. According to the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Downey Jr., was impressed with Theroux’s writing in his film Tropic Thunder and hence approached him for Iron Man 2. Theroux mentioned,
“It was super-organic. And it wasn’t clearly well-orchestrated. explained what I loved about the first movie, ideas of where it could possibly go into, the themes that I thought were interesting.”
The other big change was the removal of Terrence Howard as James Rhodes in the sequel. Howard was the highest-paid member of the cast then and his contract stated that he would be getting steady increments with each sequel. However, Marvel reportedly did not want to pay the actor that much as the films did not need his fame anymore.
Howard was reportedly angry about the decision and has since called out the studio on its decision. He also subtly referred to the studio prioritizing Downey Jr.’s stardom over his. He said,
“There was no explanation. Apparently, the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on sometimes. Promises aren’t kept…The person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, [he] took the money that was supposed to go to me.”
Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle in the sequel. Cheadle has since appeared in the franchise consistently.
