Needless to say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come a long way since 2008’s Iron Man. In that time, we’ve seen it grow from a movie centered on a man with a remarkable suit to something reaching the far cosmos. And along the way, a few instances of recasting have naturally been witnessed.
The first major example of such a thing was Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard as James Rhodes in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and beyond, with the latter’s playful statement of “next time, baby” forever echoing in my head whenever I see the former in full War Machine regalia in various blockbusters.
Apparently, Howard himself shares the sentiment, though he understandably harbors a bit of resentment toward his former employers. In fact, he didn’t mince words when discussing the subject during a recent interview:
“You know what’s so funny? Even though I love Don Cheadle so much and I love what he’s done, I still hear a lot of fans asking, ‘Am I going to come back and be War Machine? Am I going to come back and be War Machine?’ I think [Marvel] could have a huge franchise off of it, but fuck em.”
At this point, I think there’s very little chance of Marvel Studios going back to Cheadle’s predecessor, but never say never, as former James Bond Sean Connery can tell you. Regardless, Howard’s done well for himself in the past few years, as I imagine he’s raked in a lot of dough due to the success of Empire.
Personally, I love Cheadle as War Machine and do prefer him in the role, but I also wonder from time to time what it’d have been like if Howard had been able to stick around after the original Iron Man flick. Who knows, maybe he’ll take another crack at the genre and board a DC project one day?