James Rhodes

Don Cheadle is officially signed for Iron Man 2 and possible the Avengers movie

The Movie has reported that Marvel Studios has announced that he’s taking over the role Jim Rhodes from Terrence Howard.

The studio knew going in that getting a good actor for a secondary character was vitally important to their overall universe, which explains Howard’s involvement.

The character, in the main comic book universe, becomes a superhero named War Machine. WM is similar to Iron Man, but the suit is black. I like how Marvel is thinking ahead in their movie universe and setting things up for spin off characters. I could see a War Machine movie coming down the line. I'm guessing War Machine will show up in the Avengers movie.

The studio decided to dump Terrence Howard and go with Don Cheadle instead. I don't have a problem with this, as I like both Howard and Cheadle. I would have liked to have seen Howard reprise his role though.

This came as a total surprise to Howard, who was in negotiations for the follow up movie.

(("It was the surprise of a lifetime," the actor and musician told National Public Radio on Tuesday. "There was no explanation, (the contract) just up and vanished."

Howard said he read news reports that money was the issue, saying the contracts he signs apparently "aren't worth the paper that they're printed on sometimes."))

I'm sure there is more to the story than what we're reading here.