When Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man co-star Terrence Howard blamed him for Marvel ouster: ‘He took money that was supposed to go to me’

Actor Terrence Howard minced no words when he accused his Iron Man co-star, Robert Downey Jr, of having a hand in his removal from the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films. Howard played War Machine/Rhodey in the first Iron Man movie, and was subsequently replaced by Don Cheadle.

Howard in a 2013 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen had implied that after the box office success of Iron Man, Downey was offered a huge pay hike for the sequel, with the option of having it distributed among the original cast members, but he chose to keep most of it for himself. “It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out,” Howard had said. “They came to me with the second and said ‘Look, we will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.’ And I called my friend, that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back for three months.”

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Downey in a 2008 interview to MTV had said, “I had nothing to do with that decision. I love Terrence very, very much. That’s all I’ll say, because I haven’t talked to him yet … It’s one of those situations where I still don’t quite know what happened or why. Here’s what happens, too: things happen and you wind up commenting on them before you’ve actually talked to the people and it’s in poor taste.”

Also read: Robert Downey Jr willing to return as Iron Man for less money after Dolittle flop: report

Downey went on to earn record-breaking millions for his appearances in the MCU films, which ended in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame. But recent reports suggest that after the critical and commercial failure of his recent film Dolittle, Downey is prepared to make a return to the franchise, and even take a pay cut.

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