In a recent Q&A session at the Credit Suisse 23rd Annual Communications Conference, Disney CEO Bob Chapek answered some fan questions and teased the upcoming Armor Wars.
In the discussion, a question asked about whether there was a possibility to bring everyone’s favorite Iron Man back, after his tragic death in Avengers: Endgame. Chapek instantly mentioned Armor Wars,
“Well, 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 the itch that our fans have for more Iron Man.”
The Armor Wars comics written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton ran for seven issues from December 1987 to June 1988.
The story centered on Tony Stark discovering that supervillains like Force are using the top-secret tech he used to create the Iron Man armor. Heavy with guilt, Stark swears to use the power of Iron Man to destroy the forces of evil.
It’s not clear how the series would adapt the comics. Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes/War Machine will be at the center of the story.
Joe Robert Cole was originally hired to write the script for a War Machine film, which was eventually scrapped. Chances are that he might return to work on the series instead.
In February, Cheadle talked to Post-Cred Pod about the series,
“The death of Tony Stark, I’m pretty sure, will play a role in the series. Where we’ve been sort of progressing Rhodey—even in the last film where he’s now up again, and he’s now walking again, and he’s now mobile again… We keep making innovations in the suit, and what happens, I imagine there’s gonna be another elevation and another way that we’re going to keep digging into that part of Rhodey.”
In the Q&A, Chapek also claimed that Disney made the Avengers household names since their acquisition and confirmed that Loki was the most-watched season premiere ever on Disney+ during its opening week.
“And no one knew who Loki was. Even when we got started on this journey on Marvel, no one knew who Iron Man was, or Wanda, or Vision, or Falcon, or the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Shang-Chi nobody knew who these characters were. They certainly know them now.”
This seems a bit far-fetched as The Avengers first debuted in 1963 comics and have been around for decades. It was hardly Disney who made the characters household names.
Disney acquired Marvel in 2009. Iron Man (2008) featured an end-credit scene, already hinting at The Avengers, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures.
So was Iron Man 2, which premiered in 2010. In fact, all of MCU Phase 1 films aside from The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers were distributed by Paramount Pictures.
| MCU Phase Four | Release Dates |
| Loki | June 9, 2021 |
| Black Widow | July 9, 2021 |
| Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | September 3, 2021 |
| The Eternals | November 5, 2021 |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home | December 17, 2021 |
| Hawkeye | Late 2021 |
| Ms. Marvel | Late 2021 |
| Morbius | January 21, 2022 |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | March 25, 2022 |
| Thor: Love and Thunder | May 6, 2022 |
| Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever | July 8, 2022 |
| Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sequel The Marvels | October 7, 2022 November 11, 2022 |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | February 17, 2023 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | May 5, 2023 |
About Armor Wars
In December 2020, Marvel Studios announced a series based on the Armor Wars comic book storyline, with Don Cheadle reprising his role as James Rhodes / War Machine. Filming is expected to begin in mid-2021.
In February 2021, Don Cheadle revealed in an interview that the death of Tony Stark would play a major role in the series. Cheadle said the script presented “a lot of tension between his job as a military man and his allegiances to the code that he swore an oath to uphold, versus the changing world.”
James Rhodes will confront one of Tony Stark’s greatest fears when Stark’s tech falls into the wrong hands.
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