I really don't like recasts. They make a series inconsistent by changing a character's face for an unexplained reason. Rhodey and Banner had suffered from this. And Perlmutter's excuse for Rhodey, I really don't want to get into. And Tony Stark is dead anyway, so there's no point in bringing a new actor to play a dead man.

I personally don't mind recasts, I think Don Cheadle is a better Rhodey than Terrence Howard.

Unless it's a different version of Iron Man from a different universe, nobody.

There’s no reason to recast him. RDJ was a perfect iron man. There’s no one else who could’ve done a better job

I mean if we are taking about recasting Tony from another universe then I say Tom Cruise

If you are talking about never having RDJ and a different actor in the first film: I would say Sam Rockwell. This is because Marvel isn’t a big box office draw in 2008, and some sort of name would be useful at this time.

If you mean that we should have a new actor now as if we were to bring him back: my answer is, as always, someone new. Marvel Studios is in a position now to boost a lesser known person’s career (like Simu Liu as Shang-Chi or Lauren Ridloff as Makari). Let’s continue that trend!

@Marcus2444 Yes! Don Cheadle is one of my favorite overall casting choices in the MCU. I think Terrence Howard looks more comic accurate, but Cheadle definitely has better chemistry with his co-stars, particularly RDJ.

Still doesn't excuse the way Ike Perlmutter justified the recast. But oh well, Cheadle has been Rhodey longer than Howard, so Don Cheadle is the face of Rhodey. At least the DCEU never recasts anyone. As soon as Ben Affleck dropped out of The Batman, that film was reworked to be separate from the DCEU. When actors can't make their obligatory cameos, their stunt doubles stand in for them. We don't need to recast Iron Man. Unless they make a new Iron Man franchise separate from the MCU, recasting someone who is canonically dead is unnecessary. If the actor was dead while the character was alive, maybe a recast would be needed, but this case is the other way around where the character is dead and the actor is still living.

Hmmm. Maybe Zachary Levi.

^I like him, but he wouldn't fit in that role.