While on Watch What Happens Live, Terrence Howard was asked if he’d ever return to the MCU. His response is pretty telling.
If you’re a big fan of the MCU, you probably already know that James Rhodes, known usually by Rhodey or by his superhero name, War Machine, has been played by two different actors. In the original Iron Man, Terrence Howard took on the role. After a contract dispute, he was replaced by Don Cheadle who has played Rhodey ever since.
Terrence Howard hasn’t played the character for over 10 years, but the actor apparently still has strong feelings regarding the Iron Man films. During an interview with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, a fan called in and asked Howard if he had any interest in returning to the franchise.
Howard’s response made it pretty clear that he has no real intention of returning to the role.
"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? Am I going to come back and be War Machine?’"
Howard added, “I think they could have a huge franchise off of it.” FYI, Howard, we’re pretty sure the MCU has already done so.
Andy Cohen had to press him a little bit on that and inquired if that meant he would want to return. Howard had some strong words for that.
“F–k ’em,” he said, to put it not so mildly.
Watch What Happens Live is known for getting actors to reveal their real feelings, and Cohen is often good at crystallizing these moments.
“Terrence Howard to Iron Man: ‘F—k ‘Em! That was very clear, right?” Cohen replied.
You can watch the entire interview here.
Howard’s departure from the franchise was definitely rocky. He appeared on Watch What Happens Live in 2013 and had some strong words back then, too.
On the show, Howard said:
"This is going to get me in a lot of trouble, but it turns out that the person 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."
Since then, the Downey and Howard seem to have made up for the most part.
While we can sympathize with Howard’s position, we are pretty partial to how Don Cheadle has made the role his own since taking over.
Do you think Terrence Howard should return to the MCU? Let us know in the comments!