8 Actor Recasts That Completely Changed Everything

6. Colonel James Rhodes - Iron Man 2

What's this? A piece of recasting that completely changed things for the better. In the first Iron Man, Terrence Howard plays Colonel James Rhodes, government official and friend of Tony Stark. In this film Rhodey is a fairly unremarkable character, who at times come across as more whiny than anything else.

In replacing Howard with Don Cheadle for the second film, Marvel gave the character much more likability, portraying him as a charming, witty and humorous match to Robert Downey, Jr's Tony Stark. This is very important for several reasons. For a start, Stark and Rhodes are loyal to each other. They're close friends, and this chemistry is an essential component to Rhodes later becoming the Iron Patriot, a powerful companion to Stark's Iron Man. If the audience didn't like the portrayal of Rhodes, they'd end up frustrated with his friendship with Stark, and his sudden shift to standalone hero.