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.