When Iron Man and Captain America both bowed out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the climactic moments of Avengers: Endgame, albeit temporarily in the case of at least Chris Evans, the franchise lost an armored superhero and an esteemed military veteran. Luckily, though, Don Cheadle’s War Machine ticks both boxes, and he’s still very much around.
After a decade of playing second fiddle to Tony Stark, Colonel James Rhodes will finally take center stage in Disney Plus series Armor Wars, although his best friend’s shadow will loom heavily over the proceedings, with the plot set to follow Stark Industries technology falling into the wrong hands. However, the latest reports are indicating that War Machine could end up making a cameo appearance before that in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Everyone seems to have become so fixated on WandaVision, and with very good reason, that it’s easy to forget that Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes’ spinoff premieres in less than seven weeks, with Marvel doing a great job at keeping plot details under wraps. We can guess the broad strokes of the story given the footage in the first trailer and Anthony Mackie continually casting doubt on whether or not he’ll inherit the shield of Captain America on a permanent basis, but Rhodey factoring into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier somewhere along the line makes perfect sense.
He’s a former soldier just like the title duo, and he also knows a thing or two about dealing with the government having acted as the mediator between Tony and Congress on many occasions. Which side he would be on remains up for debate given his ties to both the military and the Avengers, but there’s not long to go until we find out.
