It’s official, Armor Wars has been confirmed with Don Cheadle as the leading man, the time has finally come for Rhodey AKA War Machine to step out from the shadow of Tony Stark and become his own character and fans couldn’t be more thrilled.
It’s being reported that Armor Wars is officially in production and will be filming between April 3 to Aug. 4. With Don Cheadle set to take the leading role and Yassir Lester listed as a writer on the project we’ve yet to find out any more details. The director is yet to be named, nor any cast members aside from Cheadle, or what the plot will revolve around outside of the basic premise of Stark technology falling into the wrong hands.
This hasn’t stopped fans from rejoicing at the news that the film will finally get out of development hell and have a release date. Fans are also especially happy that it gives Cheadle’s character the chance to stand on his own outside of being a sidekick to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark.
The character of James Rhodes has been in the MCU since the very first Iron Man movie. Although he wasn’t played by Don Cheadle until the second installment which is also when he took his super hero mantle, “War Machine.” However, despite being played by an A-lister like Cheadle, the character has always been outshone by bigger characters. As such he’s been pushed to the side and never given the chance to shine as a protagonist in his own feature.
Many fans have complained that Rhodey, as a character, has suffered due to his limited screen time and him always being secondary to the main struggles of the more well-known characters in the MCU. This was mostly an issue with Tony, as Rhodey mostly appeared in the Iron Man movies as a sort of sidekick. Of course this won’t be as much of an issue anymore with Stark being, you know, dead.
With Rhodey finally getting his time in the sun it’s a great opportunity for Don Cheadle to really make the character his own. A full movie with him as the protagonist will give writers the chance to flesh out his backstory, motivations and personality more than all of his appearances in the previous MCU movies combined. Essentially, this movie will finally give Rhodey character, and it’s safe to say that is what a lot of fans are looking forward to the most.
The film looks set to release sometime early next year considering the schedule for production, we can expect to learn more details regarding the upcoming film in the coming months.