Why Alphonse From Dead Man Down Looks So Familiar

Back in 2008, Terrence Howard originated the role of War Machine, or James "Rhodey" Rhodes, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's kickoff project, "Iron Man." It was a high-profile hiring, as he was reportedly paid more than Robert Downey Jr. himself. And then he was fired, an event that resulted in the actor never actually getting suited up in War Machine's gear, since he didn't make it to "Iron Man 2." Terrence, who has sometimes been described as hard to work with, claimed the firing resulted from a wage dispute in which he was offered one eighth the amount promised in an earlier contract. However, there was also some talk at the time that director Jon Favreau was not happy with Howard's performance and spent a lot of time cutting and reshooting the actor's scenes. 

Afterward, Don Cheadle took the part, and the rest is Marvel history. Howard seems to have put the incident in his past, even though it lost him a lot of income and prestige following a stellar career run in the 2000s. He told "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" in 2018, "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?' Yeah, am I going to come back and be War Machine? I think they could have a huge franchise off of it, but f*** 'em." 

Looking back on it from more than a decade later, Howard's career has not seemed to suffer from the lack of War Machine. However, if you're a fan of the MCU, this may very well the project that you know him from.