Marvel Confirms Don Cheadle for 'Iron Man,' Updates 'Avengers'

Don Cheadle joining Iron Man 2 is now official. And wide-reaching. In a press release from earlier today, which can read in its entirety at Super Hero Hype, Marvel Studios confirms that Cheadle will take over the role of James "Rhodey" Rhodes, replacing Terrence Howard, and adding that "Cheadle is also signed on to perform the same role in The Avengers and subsequent installments of the Iron Man franchise."And, oh yeah - there's big Avengers news, too. Now, saying that Robert Downey Jr. will be in it is not much of a headline; why else would they introduce the concept in Iron Man if Stark wasn't involved? But we didn't know that director Jon Favreau would be an executive producer on The Avengers. That's a big reversal of fortune from the studio's well-publicized contractual spat with Favs this summer. And if you pay attention to the description of the film given in the press release, there's some clarity on the story: "In a movie event, The Avengers will bring together the super hero team of Marvel Comics characters for the first time ever, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and more, as they are forced to band together to battle the biggest foe they've ever faced."Did you catch it? Prior to today, we weren't sure what Marvel was going to do with Hulk. There were schools of thought that said he should be the bad guy, with the other Avengers going after him on orders from Gen. Ross, presumably. Approaching it that way could limit the amount of screen time devoted to bad CGI. Now it appears that he's part of the team, although they could still reduce Hulk's role dramatically, save him just for the big fights, and never show Bruce Banner (Edward Norton). But who's the biggest foe they've ever faced? Korvac? The Grim Reaper? Red Skull? Loki? Dependence on foreign oil?