MCU Handled Its Biggest Recast in a Very Cheeky Way, and No One Noticed
Such an announcement of an actor's replacement was perhaps the most imaginative in the history of movie franchises.
Many wondered why Iron Man 2 replaced Colonel Rhodes actor Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle, who continued to play the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel's penny-pinching ways are well known to anyone familiar with the movie business, but the studio was especially careful to save money while making its first movies.
Replacing the actor who played the Colonel in the first Iron Man is a vivid example. The success of the first movie was not the most expected, and all the actors at that time had relatively low salaries.
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The highest of them was paid to the actor Terrence Howard, who played Rhodey in the 2008 movie.
He was paid $3.5 million for his role in the first Iron Man. For his participation in the second movie he demanded $5 million.
He had a long-term contract with Marvel but the studio fired the actor and did not want to pay him even the previous fee, so was only paid a penalty.
The actor was offended by the studio, this is clearly seen in some of his appearances in TV programs.
It is still not 100% clear whether Terrence left himself or whether Marvel Studios simply stopped negotiating with him, but judging by Howard's statements, this parting was not friendly enough, and the studio itself remains silent on the matter to this day.
What is more interesting is how the writers announced the replacement.
They did not pretend that no one would notice that someone else was playing Tony Stark's best friend, but instead, through the lines of Rhodey himself, they admitted that the actor is really different and the viewers will have to accept that.
Rhodey literally said: "Look, it's me, I'm here. Deal with it. Let's move on."
This small but important and unusual detail was appreciated by the fans.
"Iron Man 2 has the greatest number of cool details I've never noticed […]. This is amazing and makes my heart beats fast as someone who loves MCU, " Reddit user lele0106 commented.
Although Marvel was extremely ugly with Terrence, fans cannot help but admit that the way the studio announced the actor's replacement to the viewers right in the movie deserves at least some approval.