MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

by JoAnna Robinson

Terrence Howard, however, was no longer playing Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Tony’s best pal and liaison at the US Air Force—and not by his choice. “There was no explanation,” Howard complained. “Apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on sometimes. Promises aren’t kept.” As the first actor to sign up for the original Iron Man, Howard had commanded a premium, with his prestige as a recent Oscar nominee establishing the movie as a credible project and earning him roughly $3.5 million for a supporting role (seven times Downey’s reported salary). Now Marvel no longer needed his expensive veneer of respectability, but Howard blamed Downey’s renegotiated deal: “The person that I helped become Iron Man,” he said, “when it was time to re-up for the second one, [he] took the money that was supposed to go to me.”