The Armor Wars Disney+ series has transformed into a theatrical feature film. This project will star Don Cheadle reprising his role as James “Rhodey” Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine and will reportedly focus on what happens when villains begin salvaging old Stark Tech and reverse engineering it in order to create a new wave of high-tech super criminals.
Dominique Thorne, whose RiRi Williams/Ironheart, will make her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and will headline her own Disney+ show, is expected to also co-star in Armor Wars.
Armor Wars was announced during Disney Investors Day in 2020. Yassir Lester was announced as the writer and he will remain to refine the six-episode series into a shorter film. No director was ever announced and that remains the case.
Cheadle recently revealed that he was no longer under contract with Marvel Studios and was simply available to step in for any project they asked of him and that he found worthy. He was nominated for an Emmy for his extremely brief cameo in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
After dominating Hollywood for over a decade, Marvel’s Phase Four has been more of a mixed bag with both its movies and Disney+ shows getting divisive reactions. One negative reaction to some of the Disney+ shows is that they simply haven’t had enough stories to fill the longer format. Maybe that was the case with Armor Wars. Maybe there was a great core idea, but not one that could fill three to six hours. This change could be a good thing as it could deliver a tighter story.
It’s also possible that this idea is so great that Marvel felt it could be better served on the big screen. And it would be great to see Rhodey, who has been something of a secondary character, although one that has been a consistent scene stealer, in a starring role in a film.
This follows some pretty big shakeups at Marvel. Most recently, Blade the Vampire Slayer lost its director Bassam Tariq due to scheduling conflicts caused by production delays.
What do you think of Armor Wars becoming a movie? Is this a sign of a vote of confidence? Or concern?
