Armor Wars is still far off, and Iron Man hasn’t been a subject of much discussion lately. But the MCU is always planting hints. The Disney+ series Armor Wars is in the pipeline and will be coming out eventually. We will finally see War Machine (Don Cheadle) struggle against black market dealers trying to steal Stark Industries tech. And it’s a big job. Considering just how powerful and advanced Stark tech is in the MCU, it has to be the hottest commodity for criminals everywhere. And Happy (Jon Favreau) is the person who’s supposed to be keeping a close eye on it. We’re definitely safe.
Ever since Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) death in Avengers: Endgame, there have been a slew of villains in the MCU whose entire motivation is to steal and sell Stark tech on the black market. Either that or use it for their own diabolical purposes. Many of those guys are still alive, too, including Vulture, Justin Hammer, and Zemo. These villains, at the very least, see Stark’s technology as a means to some evil end, and they’re smart enough to know how to get it.
There have been a few movies since Endgame that have, at least in part, highlighted some technology that has fallen into the wrong hands. It’s the truth; Stark’s technology is out there, circulating amongst the people. But what’s going to happen to it?
Tony Stark's Tech in the Wrong Hands
After the Avengers’ Compound was destroyed in Endgame, a considerable amount of Stark tech was destroyed, but a lot of it was left unaccounted for as well. The huge crater in the ground that used to be Tony Stark’s headquarters left tons of machinery and weapons scattered all over the place. And villains have been seizing this stuff ever since it happened. Perhaps the first time we really learned of this market was in Spider-Man: Homecoming when Vulture (Michael Keaton) explained his goal to sell the technology to god-knows-who in order to save his family. As admirable as his motives might have been, he was still using powerful weapons and putting others in the hands of people who would have surely used them for evil purposes.
There are a vast number of people out there that would like to get some of this technology. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we discovered that the government was investigating Happy because of his connection to the missing technology. He asked Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox) if he should respond to inquisitions from the government with “that thing they say in GoodFellas,” which sounds like the type of anxiety one would have if they were criminally involved in one of these cases. But it seems doubtful Happy will turn out to be a criminal mastermind, selling weapons to foreign terrorists. It’s just not in his character. If Happy is involved in this scandal, it seems more likely that he’ll be guilty only of some type of blunder. He might have lost a crate in transportation or signed the wrong form to the wrong person.
Regardless of how it happened, we know that Stark’s technology is out there, and the wrong people are trying to control it. This is the plot for the upcoming Disney+ series Armor Wars, which will see James Rhodes (AKA War Machine) attempt to retrieve stolen Stark technology. While the comic books of the same name have Tony Stark still alive at the time, its plot is essentially the same: stolen technology needs to be recovered. However, one thing from the comics that may be used in the Disney+ series is the bad guy. The Armor Wars comic books star Justin Hammer as the villain selling Stark tech to people all over the globe. Although, something big would have to happen in the MCU in order to free him from the Raft.
Tony Stark's Tech in the Right Hands
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Of course, Stark’s technology could always be distributed to some of our favorite heroes as well. We saw in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: No Way Home that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is still using a lot of Stark’s Spider-armor, as well as a few of his drones. But he and Happy aren’t the only ones with access to this kind of stuff. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) supplied the drones in the first place. Or rather, Talos the Skrull disguised as Nick Fury. Because we know from a post-credits scene that Fury is actually in space, working on something big, really big.
And, of course, another upcoming series from Disney+ is Secret Invasion, where the shapeshifting Skrull race has invaded powerful circles of human government and superheroes. The Skrulls might be out to steal some of this technology as well. Either that or whatever Fury is working on could be the culmination of everything S.H.I.E.L.D. has learned from the remainder of Stark’s tech. Not to mention the giant orbiting S.W.O.R.D. base that just has to be packed to the brim with fancy weapons. No matter what happens, we’re sure to see a lot of Stark’s big guns in the future.