'Iron Man 2' gets Don Cheadle, loses Terrence Howard

Actor Terrence Howard will be replaced by Don Cheadle for the "Iron Man" sequel several news sources report.

According to the story in Hollywood Reporter there were some "financial differences" with Howard and the studio. That studio being Marvel. Some may call the early rancor in the comment sections of almost every story about this to be very pro-Howard and anti-Cheadle.

I sifted through scores of comments and found that to be true but only by a slight margin. Here's why...

Despite the dazzling success of "Iron Man"  ($570 Million worldwide), there are quite a few who were not fully satisfied with Howard's performance as Jim Rhodes in the film. Plenty of fans of the Iron Man character would probably not have minded someone else in the part who looked more like Rhodes. (One commenter threw out the name Michael Jai White, recently of "The Dark Knight" and not so recently the star of "Spawn.")

Others who are fans of Howard's work believed he wasn't given much to do. Put me in both camps. I didn't think Howard fit the role of Rhodes and I didn't think he had enough to do in the part anyway.

No matter who plays Rhodes it will be difficult if there isn't much of a role in the script.

My hope is that the character of Jim Rhodes is better developed by writer Justin Theroux so that whoever gets the part can bring more to it than buddy-flick comedy relief. In the comics Rhodes not only subs for main character Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) when he's dealing with his alcoholism, he gets his own armor and joins the superhero ranks as "War Machine."

Cheadle can do action or drama and to those who are worried about whether he is a physical match for Rhodes, consider this: Many stars are larger than life on screen because of the way the film is shot and their workouts and diets to make them look the part. Don't fool yourself into thinking Robert Downey Jr. is really buffed up like Stark is in the comics.