Iron Man 2 Referenced The MCU’s War Machine Recasting

Iron Man 2 features a meta-comment about the MCU’s recasting of James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for its sustained continuity and overarching narratives leading up to a culminating project – the key example being the Infinity Saga and its end with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Actors are locked in for at least a couple of films with plans to develop all main characters in the long run. That said, very early on in its history, the franchise had to switch the actor portraying a key character when Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard as Tony Stark/Iron Man’s (Robert Downey Jr.) trusted friend from the military.

It was initially the intention of bringing back Terrence Howard as Rhodey in Iron Man 2 after an explicit tease of his character assuming the character’s superhero persona in the Iron Man sequel. This never came to fruition as Cheadle took over the role in Iron Man 2, getting the opportunity to put on the War Machine armor — something that his predecessor never got any chance to do. No official reason has been given by Marvel Studios regarding the matter, although some of what went down behind-the-scenes made its way online over the years. While Kevin Feige and his team have remained silent regarding this recasting, they, however, found a subtle way to address the issue in Iron Man 2.

While Cheadle’s dialog makes sense given the circumstances War Machine and Iron Man found themselves in, this line could also be interpreted as a meta-comment regarding the recasting. In the exchange, Tony represents the viewers who were surprised to see a different actor playing the role. However, instead of stretching out the conversation with an explanation, Cheadle, and through him, Marvel Studios, simply tells the audience that the switch has happened and they need to deal with it so that everyone can move on from it. Tony actually tries asking more questions, but Rhodey’s shut down tells him categorically to drop it. What’s interesting about this particular moment is that Tony was almost never baffled, not to mention told to shut up. Typically, that would be what he did to other people who couldn’t keep up with his intellect. Given this, it’s not hard to believe that this conversation was deliberately crafted to send a message to the watching audience that they just needed to accept the fact that from then on, Cheadle would play MCU’s War Machine moving forward.

Now, sadly the genius billionaire is gone after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Among the original six MCU heroes, Iron Man is the only one with no clear replacement and there’s an argument to be made that Rhodey should actually have been given the chance to fill the void that Tony left considering he’d been with Stark at his lowest points as seen in Iron Man 2. At this point, however, it’s unclear what the future lies for War Machine in the franchise or even if there will be one.

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