Well I didn’t see this one coming. According to THR, Don Cheadle will be replacing Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2. Apparently Howard and Marvel couldn’t sort out an agreement over money, so they asked Don Cheadle to play Jim Rhodes instead.

Recasting characters in popular franchises is nothing now. It happened this summer in The Dark Knight, when Maggie Gyllenhaal took over the role of Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes. It wasn’t a major distraction but it was noticeable, and I suspect the same will happen with Iron Man 2.

What sucks even more for Terrence Howard is that War Machine is likely to be introduced in the second film, and he got quite excited about that prospect, however Cheadle will now be the one donning the suit instead.