Two things that seem insane to consider in today’s : our beloved Don was not and Robert Jr was not the highest-paid in his debut .
But that’s the way things were back when . Studios released its first entry into the MCU in 2008:
Well, the , only for the iconic and the Howard called friend to ghost him and take his share of the dollar in 2. who was originally ; one says that he played a big part in getting his role in
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What Robert Jr after says happened with

Hollywood is a fickle game; one day you’re the top paid , the next, you’re second fiddle to a that until a year ago, no one thought could lead a .
That’s what . Howard gave a great turn as , James Rhodes AKA and were generally pleased with his performance. says happened to him after filming wrapped on
Howard says that he was all set to star in at least a . However, after the , the was allegedly fired after a pay dispute. and one more , but possibly even the entire
2. You see, Howard claims he, along with and Producer Kevin Feige had to convince Disney and higher-ups that Jr was perfect for the role of . Howard claims he even took a pay cut of $1million, but when it came down to 2 and Howard was told he’d be paid far less than he was in the first Iron Man, ignored his calls until it was too late. says that this is due to , who failed to back him up when the studio offered Howard a significantly reduced rate for
The role of movies like Avengers: Age of , , and Endgame. eventually went to , who would go on to star in further
Take a look at what Howard had to say about the and Jr in particular;
Ouch.
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Don as in the was replaced by

Let’s take a look at some of those quotes;
“They came to me [for] the second and said, ‘We will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you,’”
“It turns out that the person that I helped become , 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,”
Yikes. Given that and spawn a , it’s not hard to see why Howard is annoyed if this is true would go on to star in two more

After became a smash hit, starred in all four Avengers movies, : Civil War and Spider- Homecoming. It’s actually easier to find an that he hasn’t been in! took to instantly as he cemented himself the definitive . sadly has not been afforded that privilege.
Bear in mind that the . star was a much ‘bigger deal’ at the time, and was famously only paid $500,000 for his role as
He earned $75 million for his portrayal as the in Avengers: Endgame alone. I’d say that’s enough money to take on , , and Loki combined.
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Robert Downey Jr has never commented on these claims.
The remains a classic and is available for streaming on Disney Plus. It stars Robert Jr as , as , and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts.
Do you think what Terrence Howard says about RDJ is true? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: CheatSheet, Spotboye