We’ve all known for quite awhile that Terrence Howard (‘Crash’) and Marvel butted heads about his pay and that was why he ended up being removed from ‘Iron Man 2’, but now it appears to actually be Robert Downey Jr.’s fault for the actor’s replacement. At least, that’s the story Terrence Howard is trying to claim these days. While Don Cheadle (‘Iron Man 3‘) made an excellent Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes in ‘Iron Man 2’, it was odd that in such a big budget movie we didn’t see the original actor come back for the role.

While Marvel studios had always claimed contractual differences as the reason, Howard has always claimed he was pressured to take a pay cut and when he wouldn’t play ball, he was ousted from the franchise. As the highest paid actor in the first ‘Iron Man’ film at $4.5 million, it could be seen as a slap in the face to go down to $1 million when he believed he had originally been promised $8 for the film. However he’s always held up that Marvel was to blame for the move, that is, until now when he opened up during an interview on Bravo’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’ on why he didn’t return for the sequel.

“This is gonna get me in a lot of trouble. It turns out that the person that 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. We did a three picture deal. You did the deal ahead of time. A certain amount for the first one. For the second a certain amount. For the third…they came to me for the second one and said, ‘We will pay you 1/8th of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.’ And I called my friend who I helped get the first job and he didn’t call me back for three months.

While there was an option in the contract for Marvel to drop him at any time Terrence has always insisted that it wasn’t his fault that he was given the iron boot. We might never know if this was about money or him not playing well with others, but what we do know is that he’s still angry after all of these years, and honestly if what he says is true can you blame him? A pay cut of $7 million in order to pay another star in the film more and being dropped from the franchise after saying no? That’s honestly a great reason for anyone to be mad.

While he may be in the right for being angry can you honestly say it’s RDJ’s fault? What are your thoughts fellow Marvel fans. Does Terrence have a right to be angry here or are we missing some of the story?

Source: Hitfix