Don Cheadle Reveals He Only Had Two Hours To Decide If He Wanted To Accept Six-Movie Marvel Deal

Don Cheadle Reveals He Only Had Two Hours To Decide If He Wanted To Accept Six-Movie Marvel Deal

Don Cheadle had to quickly decide if he wanted to join the Marvel franchise.

Taking over for Terrence Howard in the 2010 film Iron Man 2, Don Cheadle made his Marvel acting debut as James “Rhodey” Rhodes (aka War Machine). However, despite how popular Marvel projects are, Don Cheadle had just two hours to decide whether or not to join the cast and commit to a six-movie deal with the production company.

During a recent interview, Don Cheadle recalled,

“I was at my kid’s laser tag birthday party. 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.'”

He continued,

“So they said, ‘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?”

When it came to the character’s backstory at the time, Cheadle remarked that the studio representatives claimed they “don’t know any of that.”

He continued,

“I said ‘I’m at my kid’s laser tag birthday party,’ and they said, ‘Oh, take two hours.’ 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, and we just took a flier and said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it.'”

As War Machine, Cheadle played an officer in the US Air Force and served as a military liaison at Stark Industries, where he became best friends with Tony Stark (portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.). Rhodes personally oversaw an operation to save Stark when he was taken hostage by the Ten Rings. Upon their return, Rhodes noticed Stark shifting away from creating his weaponry for the military and eventually learned that he was instead concentrating on becoming Iron Man. Despite his concerns for his friend’s safety, the pair teamed up to foil Obadiah Stane‘s plots while attempting to protect Stark‘s secrets—only for him to go public with them.

Cheadle added,

What are your thoughts on what Don Cheadle shared? Let us know in the comments!

[VIA]