Wait a minute … Armor Wars is still happening? It is! The Don Cheadle-starring project was announced as a Disney+ series all the way back in 2020, and then seemed to fall off the radar until an announcement was made in 2022 that it was being retooled as a movie with the same writer, Yassir Lester. So James Rhodes’ next appearance post-Secret Invasion will be on the big screen.
This article contains major spoilers for Secret Invasion.
Where did we leave Rhodey at the end of Secret Invasion?
… and it’ll presumably be the real Rhodey this time, not a Skrull. We’ve been following an imposter Rhodey for years, but Secret Invasion was a little vague on when exactly the switch was made. Was it before Infinity War? After The Falcon and the Winter Soldier? We just don’t know yet. But hopefully this question will be answered in the Armor Wars movie, because Don Cheadle said in an interview with Total Film magazine that Secret Invasion “kicks off” what will happen in Armor Wars. Perhaps we’ll see Rhodey trying to cope with being a prisoner of the Skrulls for so long, and dealing with the consequences of Skrull-Rhodey’s actions?
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What is the plot of Armor Wars?
We only know the vaguest details about the plot of the movie right now. All we’ve got so far is that Armor Wars will be based on the Marvel comic of the same name and it’ll feature, well, a war over the use of the Iron Man armor. Cheadle revealed in a September 2022 interview with Phase Zero:
“If you know anything about the lore, and you’ve read the comic books, you understand that it’s a series that was built around Tony’s Stark tech getting out and Rhodey taking it on to get this tech back from the wrong hands, the bad actors whose hands it is in.”
In the comic book story, Justin Hammer—played by Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2—serves as the aforementioned “wrong hands” looking to steal Tony Stark’s armor. And speaking of Tony, his death will by all accounts factor into the movie in a big way. (It would be surprising if it didn’t considering how close Tony and Rhodey were.) Cheadle confirmed as much an interview with BroBible’s Post-Credit Podcast in February 2021.
Who has been cast in Armor Wars?
So far, Don Cheadle is the only confirmed cast member for Armor Wars. Nope, Sam Rockwell isn’t on the list, but it’s worth pointing out that Hammer survived the events of Iron Man 2 and was last seen in prison, so he could easily come back.
And don’t be surprised if Dominque Thorne’s Riri Williams/Ironheart, who was in Wakanda Forever and will be getting her own show soon, makes an appearance. After all, she’s got a suit of armor too!
What else has Don Cheadle said about Armor Wars?
Cheadle was asked about the movie during an interview with The Guardian in December 2022, and he seemed pretty pleased that Rhodey was finally going to get the spotlight after being a supporting character for so long. Answering a question about what new things there were to explore with Rhodey, he said, “There’s nothing that actually has been explored. Who are his friends? What are his relationships? What does he want? I’m not complaining. But I don’t think we know anything yet.” And Secret Invasion didn’t really help with that, so, fair enough.
A month after that Guardian interview, Cheadle shared another snippet with GQ during a video retrospective of his career:
“I think in every successive film, [Rhodey is] coming more and more out of Tony’s shadow and becoming his own person but I still think we haven’t really figured out who he is and really dug into that, so that’s what the movie is for.”
So hopefully this will finally be the project War Machine fans have been waiting for since the very beginning of the MCU.
What is the release window for Armor Wars?
In the interview with the Post-Credit podcast, Cheadle said that the show was almost at the writing stage … but that was back in 2021. And as of now, Hollywood writers and actors are all on strike until the studios that employ them start to pay them properly. So perhaps a late 2024 or 2025 release date seems most likely for Armor Wars?
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
