Marvel hade ingen lätt start när det kom till att bygga upp ett filmuniversum. Den dåvarande chefen hos Marvel var den mycket kontroversiella Isaac Perlmutter som brydde sig mer om pengar än kvalitet. Terrence Howard, som först spelade James Rhodes, var enligt rykten också svår att jobba med och det hela slutade med att Marvel sparkade honom och anlitade Don Cheadle istället. I en intervju med The A.V. Club berättar Cheadle att det hade kunnat sluta annorlunda eftersom han bara fick två (!) timmar på sig att ge ett besked.
"I was actually at my kid's birthday party—a laser tag party—and I got a call from my agent, and they said, 'Hey, so I want to connect you to these Marvel guys. They want to talk to you, but they want to offer you the part.' I don't think it was [Kevin] Feige. I don't know who was on the phone. But they said, 'Hey, this is the role. We want you to do this. It's a six-picture deal.' I was like, 'What?! Oh, uh, okay...' And I'm trying to do the math. I'm like, 'That's 11 or 12 years. I'm not sure.' And they're like, 'Well, we need to know, because if you're not saying yes, then we're gonna move on to the next person. So you've got an hour.' An hour to decide 12 years, and a role and parts that I don't even know, in movies that are coming down that I have no idea what they'll be. I said, 'I'm at my kid's laser tag party right now.' They said, 'Oh! Oh, take two hours.' So generous! So I go back inside, and I'm ducking behind things, playing laser tag, and talking to my wife. I'm like, 'Should I take a flier on this? Is this something I should do?' And she said, 'Well, yeah, I guess so. All things being equal, this is that kind of thing. You've never done anything like this before. Big special effects, tent pole, four-quadrant movie. Do you want to do something like this?' I said, 'I kind of do.' She said, 'Well, then take a flier. Let's do it. Try it.'"
Vi har antagligen inte sett det sista av Don Cheadle som War Machine.