Interview: ‘Iron Man 3’ star Don Cheadle on what he’d like to see from the Iron Patriot

Between the popular Showtime series “House of Lies” and his commitments to the Marvel movie universe, actor Don Cheadle is a very busy guy. The Oscar-nominated star of “Hotel Rwanda” and “Crash” reprises the role of Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) best friend, in Marvel’s highly anticipated follow-up to “Iron Man 2” and “The Avengers.”

“They went back-to-back last year,” an enthusiastic (but clearly tired) Cheadle said in Toronto earlier this week. “I wrapped ‘Iron Man 3’ and literally a week and a half later I was on the set of ‘House of Lies,’ then came right out of the end of that and started press for ‘Iron Man 3.’”

“Iron Man 3” sees Cheadle’s character Rhodes given a new role and a bit of a rebranding. The power-armoured hero formerly known as War Machine is now the Iron Patriot – personal bodyguard to the U.S. president and one-man extension of American military might around the world. The events of “The Avengers” (such as demi-gods and aliens invading Earth) have left humanity reeling, and Rhodey now finds himself in the somewhat unenviable position of being a deterrent against future threats – including “Iron Man 3” villain the Mandarin (played by Sir Ben Kingsley).

“That’s what his rebrand is about,” Cheadle explains. “The president says that Washington wants to look strong; they want to have their public sector superhero. That’s what the propaganda behind Iron Patriot is about.”

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Where his friend Stark spends a good chunk of the film dealing with the aftermath of “The Avengers,” Rhodes, as always, remains the good and loyal soldier. “I don’t think it matters much to Rhodey, he just wants to do his job,” Cheadle said. “He’s much more focused on upholding the oath that he took when he said he’d put on the suit.”

Central to the film is the relationship between Rhodes and Stark, and the vastly different responsibilities and approaches to problem solving the two have. “Iron Man 3” is a buddy action movie through and through -- Stark is the off-the-cuff wild man who charges in without thinking and Rhodes is the straight shooter who always needs to have a plan.

Cheadle said that while he doesn’t know if Rhodes will make an appearance in “The Avengers 2” or in his own standalone movie, he would jump at the chance to play the character again – with one major caveat.

“It would be great to come back and do this again if there is a real engine behind it that made sense,” said Cheadle. “It would have to be something warranted. If it just feels like something trying to capitalize on this heat while it’s going, then that’s a prescription for failure – especially for comic book fans.”

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The actor, who began sounding like a pretty big comic book fan himself as he spoke also had some ideas about where he’d like to see his character go.

“I’d like to see Rhodes untethered,” Cheadle said with a smile. “I wonder what he would be like out of uniform. What if his moral compass had him answering a call that wasn’t politically correct and/or sanctioned by the government? But he does it anyways because that’s what his conscience tells him that he needs to do. Now he’s out there, he’s no longer a colonel, he’s been discharged.”

While fantasizing about the possibilities Cheadle was quick to point out the abundance of comic book source material that future movies could be drawn from. “In the comic books, [Rhodes] takes over Iron Man’s mantle at some point, so they’ll figure it out.”

"Iron Man 3" blasts into theatres on May 3.