In another change of plan for Marvel Studios, it looks like the Don Cheadle-led Armor Wars will no longer be heading to Disney+ as a series but will now be a theatrically released movie. As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, the return of Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine is now expected to be dropped down the Marvel slate of movies, but it looks like Yassir Lester will still be on board to write the project.
Armor Wars was originally expected to head into production early in the new year, but with very little information having been released about the series and no directors officially on board the series, it seems like the transition to the big screen is not especially disruptive to the production. While the series was originally announced back in 2020, the six-episode limited series was given a logo and a place in the upcoming Marvel Studios release schedule at Disney’s D23 Expo.
Don Cheadle has played the character of Rhodey since taking over the role in Iron Man 2, and having appeared in numerous movies, and also showed up for a short cameo in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a role that earned Cheadle an Emmy nomination. His next appearance will be in the Samuel L. Jackson-led Secret Invasion early next year, and his role in that series is expected to set up Armor Wars. From reports, it does not seem like the plan for that, or the plot of the story itself has changed, and a movie format is apparently just better.
Don Cheadle Previously Said That Armor Wars Will Be True To Its Source Material
Disney
During Disney’s D23 Expo, Kevin Feige finally started to reveal some details about Armor Wars, saying that the story will show one of Tony Stark’s worst fears becoming a reality with his potentially lethal technology getting into the wrong hands. With Stark now no longer about to look after his own creations, James “Rhodey” Rhodes has to take on the task of protecting the Iron Man legacy. While speaking earlier this month, Cheadle commented:
“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. As Marvel does, it’s also an opportunity to take the mythology and tip it on its head a little bit and come up with different ways to tell the story, so it’s doing that and has done that in spades.”
However the Armor Wars story is told, one thing that is certain is that we will finally get to learn more about Rhodey than any of the movies of the Marvel franchise have been able to delve into. While this has been the main purpose of many Disney+ series, it seems that Rhodey’s story, and the continuation of the Iron Man legacy, is one that Marvel Studios believe is worth telling on the big screen.