Comicbook reports via The Hollywood Reporter that massive change is occurring with one of Marvel Studios’ upcoming titles. The previously announced Armor Wars series is now being produced as a feature film with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s James Rhodes, played by Don Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress, House of Lies) still set to lead. The series was first announced in 2020.
This decision may surprise many fans as just weeks ago, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Cheadle had teased that the series was still on track during Disney’s D23 Expo event. Comicbook reports the change was promoted by wanting to do the story justice.
Cheadle previously spoke with Comicbook about the series during last month’s D23 Expo.
“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 go get this tech back from the bad hands, the bad actors whose hands it is in,” Cheadle explained. “And 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.”
With the move from TV to the sliver screen, Armor Wars’ tragectory shifts further down the production pipeline, according to Comicbook. Its actual release date at this time is unknown and could stretch as far as 2026 with Marvel’s other future projects. However, we do know Cheadle as Rhodey – aka War Machine – will appear in the Nick Fury vs. Skrulls spy series, Secert Invasion, which is set for an early 2023 release. Samuel L. Jackson (Jungle Fever, Captain Marvel) returns to Earth as the leader of the Avengers to prevent an alien race from further infiltrating the ranks of some of Earth’s mightiest heroes and agencies. Some have hypothesized that Rhodey could be a Skrull himself, which would set up a deeper dilemma for the character to overcome within the MCU.
Armors Wars as of yet does not have a director. However, the head writer for the series, Yassir Lester (Black Monday, The Carmichael Show) is still attached to pen the film’s script.