Here’s Why Terrence Howard Isn’t In Iron Man 2
Nov 1, 2008 by Vic HoltremanAnd it’s not what you think… prepare to be surprised.
A couple of weeks ago we asked if Terrence Howard had been blindsided by Marvel with his removal from Iron Man 2. According to that post the word that he was left out of the sequel and replaced by Don Cheadle came out of the blue, and he heard about it online like the rest of us. My first reaction was “What the heck is wrong with Marvel?” but I did figure that there were two sides to the story and we should wait until we heard the other side before coming to any conclusions.
Well we now have the other side of the story (albeit unofficially), and it’s quite fascinating and unusual.
According to Entertainment Weekly, while some insiders guessed it had to do with Howard being difficult on the set, the story has much more to it:
“Howard was the first actor signed to the film and, on top of that, was the highest-paid. That’s right: more than Gwyneth Paltrow. More than Jeff Bridges. More than Robert Downey Jr. And once the project fully came together, it was too late to renegotiate his deal.”
Wow. How’s that for an interesting twist? To further complicate matters, the word is that Jon Favreau was not very happy with Howard’s portrayal of Tony Stark’s long time friend Jim Rhodes. Again, there is no confirmation on this as Favreau did not comment on any of this.
I would not find this hard to believe because it seems that Favreau was going for the 1980s version of Iron Man in his selection and direction of Robert Downey Jr in the role. Being a long time reader of Iron Man in the comic books, I never thought (and have mentioned here more than once) that Terrence Howard was a good choice for the role. It should have been someone that could bring more gruffness and intensity to the role, as opposed to Howard’s soft-spoken version.
To delve deeper into this, it seems that Favreau and screenwriter for the next film Justin Theroux were minimizing Rhodey’s role in the second film due to the fact that Favs wasn’t happy with the performance in the first film. So… once Marvel heard that the role would be even smaller, considering how relatively speaking Terrence was overpaid for the first movie, they slashed his pay for the sequel drastically. Once Howard’s agents were informed they were taken aback at the huge pay cut.
It’s unclear who walked away first at this point, but it’s moot anyway. Terrence Howard is out and Don Cheadle is in. For more details on the story head over to the article at Entertainment Weekly.
Source: EW.com (and we first heard about this over at SlashFilm.com)
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I was gutted when I found out that they replaced Terrance Howard. He is an amazing actor and I love the on screen connection between Howard and Downey. Howard portrayal of the friendship between the two seems so genuine. And Howard is extremely good looking to boot. I was so unhappy that I didn’t bother to watch Iron Man 2.
You people need to think harder after reading this. I know its old but what im about to say should be referenced in the future and in all honesty should be standard practice in movies anyway. First why didn’t they make him sign a contract for a sequel deal to begin with? They knew there would be a sequel, what comic book hero movie hasn’t?. 2nd why oh why in this country do we flock to big name actors? There are plenty of no names with as much or maybe more talent than the big names who would of filled the roll just as well and sometimes even better for not near as much and would gladly sign for sequels if asked (its not like this is sports were you TRULY have to have something extra special to get paid more). And you wouldn’t have known the difference, in fact you would having been raving how good “john doe” was as Rhodes. Its not rocket science just common since. Look at Hugh Jackman, i never heard of him til X-Men and look how great he turned out. Now he is a BIG NAME actor. Halle Berry as Storm? Please. She was horrible for the part. Yes Terrence Howard is a marvelous actor there is no doubt. But when you replace an actor in a sequel it knocks 50% of like value right off the top before i even see it for me.
You are correct on all counts sir. Its the same way in the music biz. And the latter being the key as to why. Biz, the money end. Big name actors fill seats. Your average John or Jane Doe actor has to work their way to the top by sometimes doing a lot of smaller parts of leading indie films. Same in music. Bands play clubs for years sometimes before they make it. Would you rush to ticket master’s website and buy tickets for a band you never heard of if they were covering songs you DID know for a night? Most ppl prob would not. But maybe some ppl would. In Hollywood that’s called a gamble and they RARELY take those anymore. Just my 2 cents.