From almost the second Don Cheadle’s War Machine was announced to be getting his own solo series, the rumor mill went into overdrive about Robert Downey Jr. making a swift return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in upcoming streaming exclusive Armor Wars.
It’s not as if the speculation is entirely without merit, either, when Rhodey has been intrinsically linked to Iron Man since Jon Favreau’s franchise-launcher back in the summer of 2008, with almost everything the character does being directly connected to RDJ’s genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.
So far, all we know about Armor Wars for sure is that it’s loosely based on the comic book arc of the same name, with the notable change that War Machine will be replacing Tony Stark as the protagonist. And as far as the plot goes, it’ll see Stark Industries technology fall into the wrong hands, forcing Tony’s longtime best friend and fellow Avenger to set things right.
During a recent Q&A session, Disney CEO Bob Chapek was asked about Downey Jr. making a comeback in the show, and the response was about as vague as you’d expect from the guy in charge of the Mouse House empire.
“Tell your Marvel fan that we’ve got a series called Armor Wars coming up, starring Don Cheadle as War Machine. I think that will probably scratch that itch that our fans have for more Iron Man.”
Iron Man’s fingerprints are going to be all over Armor Wars regardless of whether or not the man himself shows up, so the creative team will hardly be able to ignore the Stark-sized elephant in the room. So far, Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Paul Bettany and Anthony Mackie have all been linked with potential roles, but as of yet, the only talent officially attached on either side of the camera is Cheadle, although that’s expected to change in the near future with the series scheduled to start filming before the end of 2021.
Published: Jun 15, 2021 07:12 am