Actor Don Cheadle has shed new light on his casting as James “Rhodey” Rhodes AKA War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speaking to GQ, Cheadle said he was at his kid’s laser tag party when he got the call, and he had a very limited amount of time to decide if he would sign on for a six-movie deal. Cheadle did eventually take the deal, replacing Terrence Howard, who played War Machine in the original Iron Man, but the story of how it all came together is pretty incredible.

“I was at my kid’s laser tag birthday party,” Cheadle explained (via Variety). “They called me and said, ‘This is what’s happening and we’re giving you the offer. If you don’t say yes then we’re going to the next person. This is going to happen very fast. Why don’t you take an hour and decide if you want to do it.’ It was a six-movie deal! In an hour I have to decide?”

Cheadle explained where he was–at a family social engagement–and couldn’t make a decision right away. So Marvel gave him one additional hour to decide. “So we played laser tag for two hours and I was talking to my wife and we thought about it and talked to my agent and tried to get as much information as we could,” he said.

At the time, Cheadle didn’t know exactly what he was signing on for. Marvel reportedly told him the five further films after Iron Man 2 would be Avengers films, and after asking about War Machine’s character arc, Marvel reportedly told him, “We don’t know any of that but this is what it is…”

Cheadle took the deal the rest is history. As for the original War Machine actor, Howard explained to Andy Cohen in 2013 that he did not come back for Iron Man 2 due to a pay dispute.

“It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man … when it was time to re-up for the second one, (he) took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out,” Howard said at the time (via ScreenRant), presumably referencing Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man.

Cheadle will play War Machine again in the upcoming MCU movie Armor Wars, and this time, he is the main character. Speaking to GQ, Cheadle said, “In every successive film, he’s coming more and more out of Tony’s shadow and becoming his own person. But we still haven’t explored who he is and really dug into that yet. That’s what the movie is for.”

Outside of the MCU, Cheadle is known for his Oscar-nominated performance in Hotel Rwanda as well as his memorable performance as Basher in the Ocean’s series of films.

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