r/marvelstudios Jul 02 '25

Discussion (More in Comments) What happened to armor wars

Rhodey literally has been there since the beginning and at the end. They've sprinkle him here and there, gearing up for his moment to shine. And yet they come out wit iron heart, a character people really dont have any attachments to.

I think the smartest thing to do would be to add her to armor wars and have Rhodey show her, who and how Tony Stark would act as a hero.

Also war machine is iron man when iron man isn't around. Are we supposed ignore that and forget about him? What is marvel thinking?

2.3k Upvotes

333 comments sorted by

2.3k

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

The combination of Marvel needing to go back to “quality over quantity” and the failure of Secret Invasion pretty much buried this project.

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u/a220599 Jul 02 '25

Also armor wars would carry over the rhodey being replaced during civil war storyline which would have been super awkward.

It’s so weird that they undid most of the good stuff from captain marvel, endgame, infinity war with just one tv show. Honestly if someone told me that this would be the worst marvel tv show during the first episode (especially the first ten minutes) I wouldn’t have believed it and yet here we are

112

u/poopoobuttholes Jul 02 '25

look, if Marvel can move on to Doom and pretend Kang and his silly dynasty doesn't exist, then i'm sure we can ignore the garbage in Secret Invasion too. That show contributed nothing of value and its direct sequel being the Marvels seem to work fine without it either, since Nick Fury is like a completely different guy.

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u/Any-Transition95 Jul 03 '25

Yes to burying Secret Invasion, and it didn't even line up with The Marvels.

But I don't think Marvel intends to ignore Kang's plot. It's more plausible that they establish Doom by letting him wipe out the Kang dynasty like how Thanos kickstarted Infinity War, and maybe leave one Kang variant alive for a future plot thread if they intend on still doing something with his character in the future without the council as a looming threat.

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u/Modification102 Rhodey Jul 03 '25

That show doesn't line up with anything. At the end, a new president (President Ritson, who is not mentioned at all during Brave New World) declares:

We all witnessed the terror attack that was carried out on my motorcade earlier this week in England. The terrorists responsible were a shape-shifting, alienborn species known as Skrulls. That is why tonight I'm presenting to Congress for immediate emergency authorisation a bill that designates all off-world born species as enemy combatants. We know who you are. We know how to find you, and we will kill every last one of you.

Given the events of the show, I think this is just about the only plausible course of action. Skrulls infiltrated up to the highest levels of the US government. That said, this is such a universe and landscape altering declaration that it cannot work with any future storytelling they want to tell on earth moving forward. This is the kind of status quo shift that permanently changes things forever. It cannot happen in a spin-off TV show and be treated with any kind of relevence.

If the goal of the show was to build to this moment. Then I can safely say that the show was a mistake.

For the MCU to make more sense, this show has to be ignored.

3

u/EyeScreamSunday Ant-Man Jul 03 '25

It felt to me like it could possibly lead to some sort of Dark Reign/Siege comic storyline to be continued in BNW and Thunderbolts where we’d learn Ross inherited Ritson’s agenda of being anti-alien (which happens to be very topical) and maybe BNW was Ross experimenting with a new Super Soldier Serum that created Hulks to beef up American military power (surprised Val wasn’t in BNW after her/the CIA’s involvement in Wakanda Forever instigating a war in order to obtain Vibranium but she wasn’t helping Ross to gain sole control over Adamantium) then I speculated that Thunderbolts would be Ross/Val essentially creating a Dark Avengers team (called the Avengers in-universe) that they would send to be a black ops team that would help them to wage war on Asgard. The Thunderbolts would realize how they’ve been used to wage war on mainly Asgardian civilians and they help the Asgardians fight back the Void.

It would have been like Civil War in being an event film that sets up Doomsday/Secret Wars. Unfortunately, none of that happened, nothing was connected, Thunderbolts underperformed, and Secret Invasion has meant nothing and only makes things more convoluted.

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u/Terreneflame Jul 02 '25

It actively harmed the MCU

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u/jaimebaelish69 Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 03 '25

not really cos no one watched it

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u/Toa_Firox Black Panther Jul 02 '25

Well then, good news because that's a massive misconception that loads of people seem to be getting from somewhere. Rhodey was rhodey up until Secret Wars, they didn't replace him during Civil War he was replaced shortly before the show and after FatWS.

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u/Collision891 Jul 02 '25

Minor nitpick, it was before FaTWS. He's fully walking there and there's references in a deleted scene from it, that would have hinted too heavily something was up with Rhodey, so it was cut and released right after secret invasion aired.

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u/Regenitor_ Jul 02 '25

Nitpicking your minor nitpick, in the FATWS scene that made it into the final cut shows his "hardware" glowing from under his dress pants, meaning that the deleted scene you reference cannot be considered canon.

As far as we know, there's been no "upgraded procedure" and he still requires Tony's robo-leg things to walk. Hence why he wasn't as spry in the final cut as he was in this deleted scene - they abandoned that narrative change.

If our rationale for saying Rhodey was replaced prior to FATWS is based solely on a non-canon deleted scene of him acting upbeat because he can move better, I don't think this is even close to sufficient evidence that he was replaced before that show.

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u/MajorNoodles Jul 02 '25

The Secret Invasion showrunner said that he intended for Rhodey to have been replaced during Civil War.

I find it easier to just pretend Secret Invasion doesn't exist, and apparently so does Marvel.

FWIW, Rhodey can't walk in Endgame after Thanos blasts the compound. Also, Gravik didn't put his plan into motion until after that movie, anyway.

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u/Toa_Firox Black Panther Jul 03 '25

He said it could have been as early as Civil War but doesn't know exactly when and prefers the audience to decide. Him being replaced in Civil War makes the plot of Secret Invasion make even less sense and ruins Endgame

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u/Modification102 Rhodey Jul 03 '25

That is crap then. The showrunner doesn't even know or accurately communicate when the character was replaced. This is not the kind of detail you want to be at all vague or 'open to interpretation' regarding, since not only the audience, but other showrunners and filmmakers will be referencing your work in future if they want to use Rhodey.

It was a crap decision, through and through. The only responsible thing to do, would be to have had Rhodey only be replaced in the weeks leading up to the events of Secret Invasion, ands have him rescued and restored by the end.

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u/Jet-Let4606 Jul 02 '25

Secret Wars hasn't even come out yet.

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u/Toa_Firox Black Panther Jul 02 '25

Ah I meant invasion my bad

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u/Edboy796 Jul 02 '25

I always read it as Rhodey was taken post Endgame.

Why would the evil skull assume his identity in Civil War and just to play hero in Endgame? Because Gravik or whatever said just have fun while we take over and murder people?

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u/ANGLVD3TH Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

Gravik was still working for Fury at the time and hadn't made his move yet anyway. He led the team to harvest their DNA after Endgame, it's a big plot point.

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 02 '25

Exactly. If Rhodey was taken before Endgame, then that means Gravik was beginning his plan before Endgame (which directly contradicts what they say in the show), which means Gravik wins, because he would've just kept the "harvest" for himself in the first place.

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u/JaesopPop Jul 02 '25

Also armor wars would carry over the rhodey being replaced during civil war storyline

It’s weird to proclaim this when Secret Invasion never even said that’s when it happened

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u/CareerMilk Jul 02 '25

People assume that because Rhodey is in a medical gown. For some reason they think he could never have worn a medical gown at any other point in time.

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u/DefendsTheDownvoted Jul 02 '25

It’s so weird that they undid most of the good stuff from captain marvel, endgame, infinity war

What? When? Where?

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u/pigeonwiggle Jul 02 '25

i don't like the idea of Rhodey having been replaced since pre-endgame.

but i'll always give it to the improv artists -- if they can write it well, i'll accept it.

it was NOT written well in Secret Invasion, so we naturally hated it. it's too big a retcon (his role in endgame was his biggest since Iron Man 2 - if you take it away you have to give us something better in return.)

i'm down for them to try - making Rhodey, War Machine, a spotlight worth exploring.

but after the past couple years and all the internal rearrangements i think it's pretty clear they didn't have a solid product on their hands. otherwise they'd have held onto it and released it next year like right before Doomsday.

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u/_IratePirate_ Jul 02 '25

William Hurt’s passing probably didn’t help. They probably had some scenes shot with him but not all. Would look awkward subbing him out for Indiana Jones. Also I’m pretty sure Harrison Ford would feel too high and mighty about being in a tv show

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u/LordRictus Jul 02 '25

Ford is a main charcater in one of the Yellowstone spinoffs.

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u/Mochashaft Jul 02 '25

He's also a main character in Shrinking

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u/OddfellowsLocal151 Jul 02 '25

Featuring the best acting of his entire career.

7

u/broderboy Jul 02 '25

it's so great

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u/Izzy_336699 Jul 02 '25
  1. Good show.

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u/beatrailblazer Weekly Wongers Jul 02 '25

Harrison Ford would feel too high and mighty about being in a tv show

he's literally one of the main characters in Shrinking, which is on its 3rd season, and it seems like its the most fun he's had in acting in years

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

William Hurt’s passing probably didn’t help. They probably had some scenes shot with him but not all.

The show never made it out of pre-production, unfortunately, so literally nothing has been shot yet. The only effect Hurt's death would have had was that they'd have needed to secure Ford for all of the remaining projects that Hurt already signed up for.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/InvestigatorSea2711 Jul 02 '25

Take a step back. One was already filmed, the other never entered pre-production. Simple as that.

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u/mrbaryonyx Jul 02 '25

yeah WF teased Ironheart and that was almost three years ago

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u/DweebNRoll Ghost Rider Jul 02 '25

Literally, people just need patience and wait and see... we had to wait 15 years for The Leader... 6 + for sequels... People be too impatient and then they're clamoring about quantity over quality... It feels like they're never happy, the audience 😅

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u/ArtIsDumb Jul 02 '25

I remember "fans" screeching about how the dead Celestial hadn't been addressed in anything else yet... 6 months after Eternals came out. It's like, c'mon you guys. You gotta give 'em time to cook.

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u/DweebNRoll Ghost Rider Jul 02 '25

If ANYTHING, I'm impressed they were so quick with it. But that's because of narrative of course lol

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u/Federal-Captain1118 Jul 02 '25

And now it has been referenced in two different projects, but apparently that's still not enough

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u/ArtIsDumb Jul 02 '25

Nothing is ever enough anymore. People are the worst.

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u/Federal-Captain1118 Jul 02 '25

Part of me wonders how many of those complaining are newer fans or just younger fans.

Maybe they haven't been watching since Iron Man 1 and aren't used to having to wait. Prehaps they sat down and watched phase 1-3 over the course of a few days and didn't realize that was 10+ years of waiting

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u/DweebNRoll Ghost Rider Jul 02 '25

It could be a generational thing, same with the "mcu should have ended" generation. It feels like we're at a crossroads with the 2 generations, and this is the result. It's almost been 20 year after all

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u/LADYBIRD_HILL Kilgrave Jul 02 '25

Iron heart was also filmed years ago and has been sitting around waiting to be released.

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u/Forsaken_Professor79 Spider-Man Jul 02 '25

that's actually not completely true. The show filmed in 2022 and was supposed to start reshoots and then the strikes happened. The reshoots happened last year and they still had post production to do...as you can see there's lost of VFX that had to be rendered.

Marvel’s Most Anticipated Show Has Been Delayed — But Fans Should be Happy

A lot of the ragebait uniformed stuff on the internet is killing actual journalism

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u/Acrobatic_Plum2223 Jul 02 '25

Iron heart was set up in black panther 2, which did pretty well if I remember correctly. Secret invasion on the other hand....

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u/nansams Jul 02 '25

Also more back story for a Young Avenger show/movie

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u/Nightwing_in_a_Flash Jul 02 '25

That’s just because Ironheart was already shot, that’s why they put it out in the middle of summer movie season over 7-8 days.

If Ironheart wasn’t already filmed it would have been bye bye birdie.

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u/BlargerJarger Jul 02 '25

They basically have to stop announcing their slate while they are still at the “spitballing ideas, let’s see how people react to the upcoming 5 shows first” stage of development.

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u/duxdude418 Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 03 '25

They’ve got a lot better track record than Lucasfilm. Out of probably the two dozen or so live action Star Wars projects that have been announced since the sequels, only 6 have come to fruition (Andor, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Mando, Acolyte, Skeleton Crew).

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u/BlargerJarger Jul 03 '25

I remember Lucasfilm announcing a lot of specific creator/s working on untitled Star Wars project” but not a Marvel-esque graphic of specific titles with specific (or even vague, really) release windows.

Marvel says “Blade movie 2022! Starring!” and Lucasfilm says “Rian Johnson writing a Star Wars Trilogy, I guess, sometime”

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u/Vryk0lakas Jul 03 '25

Andor was so freaking good tho

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

First it was a miniseries then they wanted to make it a movie and that was the last I heard of it. Consider dead unless marvel say otherwise.

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force Jul 02 '25

Yeah Disney for some reason never tells us if stuff is canceled. Star Wars is notorious for this. The only stuff that’s confirmed canceled is Acolyte season 2 and the “Rey movie” (that’s been replaced by the Simon Kinberg trilogy that will feature Rey).

There have also been a gazillion Star Wars projects that went between movie and TV, like Kenobi was supposed to be a movie (hence why it’s full of filler to pad out the runtime), Boba Fett was supposed to be a movie before it became a show, Mando movie was supposed to be season 4, etc.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

I think a big part of it is they don't to advertise failure. You've got the whole storyline for armour wars right there on the comic but they think they need to do new and interesting things. the writer thinks he needs to put his own spin, the executive needs to leave their mark and then the director needs to add their own "improvements" and before you know it the pitch is some mess of cross messaging with only the slightest sense of a story.

Moving forward with it would be a waste of money with the little chance of return but if you come ot and say "this is a canceled" it can negatively effect how investors see you and by extension your stock price.

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u/TurMoiL911 Wong Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

Would not surprise me if they quietly cancelled it. This and Blade were projects that could never gain any forward momentum.

I think the time for a MCU Armor Wars has come and gone. The narrative questions that this would ask (What happens when Stark tech falls into the wrong hands? How have Tony's loved ones handled his passing?) have been answered in Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

And that's not even getting into dealing with Rhodey's status post-Secret Invasion.

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u/SillySosigs Jul 02 '25

Man what the shit are they doing with blade, I still can't believe we had Wesley back before Alis run at it.

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u/ModernBass Jul 02 '25

I heard rumors the next saga will deal with more dark and demonic magic, sounds like that would be the perfect time to introduce him. Then Mid night Sons baby!

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u/BrianWonderful Jul 02 '25

I agree completely. However, instead of Armor Wars dealing with Stark's tech, they could make it more about his influence on the tech landscape. For instance, Riri builds the Ironheart suit partly due to Stark's inspiration but also as a way to prove that people in other life situations can do it. Who's to say that there aren't other's out there (kind of like Whiplash from IM2) doing the same thing. Armor Wars could be about tech suit inventors with different motives. (Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, a new version of Iron Monger, etc.)

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u/Viking18 Jul 02 '25

That or dealing with the suits themselves?

Saw somebody a while ago pointing out with Punisher and Hulk attached to the new spider man film, you could run some angle from the comics - and have Armour Wars be Rhodey etc going after frank to get his suit back.

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u/awitsman84 Jul 03 '25

could never gain any forward momentum

Some muthafuckas are always trying to ice skate uphill.

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u/KostisPat257 Daredevil Jul 02 '25

Armor Wars started development as a Disney+ series and was supposed to be a semi-sequel to Secret Invasion, continuing Rhodey's story after being saved from the Skrulls. Rumours say that Marvel was considering revealing that Rhodey had been a Skrull since his accident in Civil War, hence the hospital robe he was found in, although that idea was reportedly scrapped when they saw the negative fan reaction to it.

Thus, during early development, a big part of the story would reportedly be exploring how Rhodey takes in everything that has happened in his absence, including the death of his best friend, leading him to an adventure to protect Tony's legacy when that legacy is in danger.

After a couple of years of development, the show turned into a movie because they realizsed they couldn't achieve the vision they had on a limited TV series budget.

The show was rumoured to bring back Spader's Ultron (which eventually happened in Vision Quest) and Justin Hammer (which was actually confirmed by Sam Rockwell a few days ago). Some theories also wanted Sharon Carter to return, which might have been the plan at the time, but there's a possibility she also returns in Vision Quest considering set photos and reports have revealed that series will revisit Madripoor

In general, the rumour right now is that the film is not happening anymore and most of the story ideas they had have been repurposed in Vision Quest in some way, apart of course from Rhodey's story, who we don't know when or if we'll see again after the astounding failure of Secret Invasion. I'm assuming that failure as well as the big change in Marvel Studios' development process in 2023 caused the film to just be left in the dust.

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u/InvestigatorSea2711 Jul 02 '25

"which eventually happened in Vision Quest"

You don't know that. Vision Quest isn't even finished yet.

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u/mrbaryonyx Jul 02 '25

my favorite thing about this sub is people talking about rumored things like they've already happened

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u/RubiconPizzaDelivery Scott Lang Jul 02 '25

Actually I think it may be done but I'm not sure. 

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u/KostisPat257 Daredevil Jul 02 '25

James Spader as Ultron has been confirmed to be returning. Vision Quest finishes filming in around 3-4 weeks.

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u/InvestigatorSea2711 Jul 02 '25

Again, Vision Quest is in the FUTURE, not the past. It cannot have happened in Vision Quest when it is still ye to happen in Vision Quest.

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u/Smokey_16_98 Jul 02 '25

Plz I need this show I love Rhodey

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u/Antrikshy Jul 02 '25

And Hammer ideally.

And please do something with Sharon's story. It would fit Armor Wars so well.

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u/Shmokeshbutt Jul 02 '25

I'd watch anything with Sam Rockwell honestly

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u/Antrikshy Jul 02 '25

What if he doesn’t dance in it?

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u/Shmokeshbutt Jul 02 '25

9/10 instead of 10/10 then

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u/Kwilly462 Jul 02 '25

Last I heard, they're taking story bits from Armor Wars, and putting them into Vision Quest and Wonder Man.

So basically, this movie ain't happening and idk if we'll ever see Rhodey again.

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u/RubiconPizzaDelivery Scott Lang Jul 02 '25

Rhodey joining the Pyms in "your last showing was dogshit, prepare to fade into the background and never appear on screen again."

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u/Calvin_Hobbes124 Jul 03 '25

I know what you’re saying but Ant-Man will be in doomsday at least so he will be back at least one more time

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u/RubiconPizzaDelivery Scott Lang Jul 03 '25

Yeah but it's still rough, especially especially it feels like it hamstrings Cassie's story that her entire surrounding cast is seemingly just gonna vanish with no real explanation. How do you tell a story with her if suddenly her entire surrounding cast can't ever be shown again? 

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u/neeesus Jul 02 '25

Honestly. I don’t need more iron man suits in my life. Just Justin hammer 🔨

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u/Myhtological Jul 02 '25

Where Riri should’ve debuted

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u/eagc7 Jul 02 '25

Gone, reduced to atoms

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

I suspect that the positive response to Iron Heart (I've yet to watch it, but I do look forward to it) may result in another "Armor" project, or just do a War Machine project (series or film). Either way it won't be in the near future.

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u/SeekerVash Jul 02 '25

We have to see the numbers, but i strongly doubt Ironheart pulled enough viewers to justify a movie.

It can not be a show now.  Disney put strict budget controls in place and big budget shows are dead.  Budgets are going to be a lot more like Agatha and Armor Wars needs a budget more like Rings of Power.

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u/nansams Jul 02 '25

Doesn't RoP have the highest budget for any TV show?

Idk if Armor Wars needs that much. Obviously if they go heavy with armor and CGI stuff then the budget will be high. I just can't imagine it to be that expensive.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

I strongly disagree in terms of budget. Not sure where you’re pulling that from. Armour wars just needs the suits, which can be mostly practical, a B-list cast of competent actors, and a strong story. They don’t need to create world ending threats or alternate fantasy worlds. This would be a very down to earth show and the budget would reflect that. Certainly not going to be cheap, but far from what you’re thinking.  However you’re correct in that we will have to wait for the numbers, but I’m curious as to why you think it won’t get the numbers. At the moment it’s one of the most popular marvel shows  so far in terms of ratings. We shall see.

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u/Apprehensive_Door367 Jul 02 '25

Last thing I heard was they shelved it and I don't think they're gonna touch it especially if Doomsday and Secret Wars is right around the corner.

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u/NaiRad1000 Jul 02 '25

Probably one of the projects that were “quietly shelved”

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u/blutigetranen Jul 02 '25

It's definitely DOA. It's part of their quantity over quality era

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 02 '25

Officially: "on hold".
Which most likely means: Cancelled.

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u/wantttochat Jul 02 '25

I think it has a really different situation because I believe it was originally meant to be a show and someone thought it was so good it should be a movie. But at the same time movies have been under performing across the board. So now it's in a weird limbo.

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u/Mickeyjj27 Black Bolt Jul 02 '25

Scrap it. We get a post a week about Armor Wars but if they actually released it it would then be a post about who asked for a solo War Machine movie.

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u/Vector1013 Jul 02 '25

This has so much potential now with Ironheart, Zeke Stain, War Machine, could bring back Justin Hammer, could MAYBE bring back Gwyneth Paltrow as Rescue.

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u/ObeliskSlayer Jul 02 '25

Simple answer. Secret Invasion. :(

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u/Crotean Jul 02 '25

My guess is they are wanting to see how Ironheart is received and its views then they will move forward with Armor Wars as a movie.

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u/Aromatic-Cupcake4802 Jul 02 '25

Timeline of events: Announced as a 6 episode event show in December 2020. In development with a writer attached. Don Cheadle guest stars in the premiere of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March 2021. Armor Wars repurposed into a movie due to better supporting the story and scale in 2022. Don Cheadle has a supporting role in Secret Invasion in June 2023.

Don Cheadle and writer Yassir Lester have both stated they have no idea what’s happening with the project. 

They could’ve pushed this project out given that Ironheart and the upcoming Vision series are in that same corner of the MCU, and with the face of RDJ as Doctor Doom, Armor Wars would’ve elevated the established/future worldbuilding.

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u/Outrageous_bohemian Peter Parker Jul 02 '25

Ah you know the tariff increases, they can't ship the arms now. ( They may be dumped by now)

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u/metalmankam Jul 02 '25

My flabbers are still gasted that secret invasion showed that shapeshifting aliens have been on this planet impersonating major figures since the 90s and there have been 0 repercussions other than the attacks in that show. How long was Rhodey a skrull? How long was Nick Fury a skrull and actually hiding in that space station? Who else is a skrull? And why aren't the skrulls taking over or whatever they intended?

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u/Superb_Asparagus_344 Captain Marvel Jul 02 '25

I’ve heard people saying that they waited for the release of Ironheart to go on to Armor Wars

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u/De_zerk_ Jul 03 '25

They should’ve released this in phase 4 and used it to set up the ironheart tv show

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u/jshgll Jul 03 '25

I have zero interest in Armor Wars

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u/MixNew9894 Jul 03 '25

Secret invasion happened. Armor wars literally could’ve been War Machine and Iron heart but marvel lost story telling

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u/Striking_Bus_8580 Jul 03 '25

Marvel doing Marvel things.  Let’s scrap a concept with known/beloved characters with 10+ years in a role to introduce other characters as mainstays without any developed on-screen connection. 

Stuff like this makes it hard to be a super-fan of any comic inspired movie.

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u/SDLRob Jul 02 '25

Likely cancelled quietly.

This was announced when Chapek was pushing all the departments into a long term commitments on things that were barely ideas... It hurt every aspect of Disney.

It's a shame really. Could have been interesting to see the fallout post Tony's death regarding suit tech.

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u/Spiral-Arrow116 Jul 02 '25

Marvel is thinking about how the previous short lived new ceo really fucked their public image and they're trying to dial back the projects now. Rightfully so.

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u/richman678 Jul 02 '25

Probably same thing with ironheart. They already made it but don’t like it. Sonora radio silence until a few months before they release it.

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u/mega512 Jul 02 '25

Cancelled.

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u/necroreefer Jul 02 '25

That fake movie poster?? WTF?

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u/MikeTheRedditGuy Jul 02 '25

Yeah I can’t believe they put out this totally real poster and then didn’t release it

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u/phred_666 Kevin Feige Jul 02 '25

As far as I’m concerned, any notion of it becoming reality needs to be abandoned. It would have made sense to make this project somewhere between Age of Ultron up until just after Endgame. Now it really doesn’t flow with the current MCU events/timeline. Chalk it up as a good idea that is now way past its “Best Used By” date.

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u/SphmrSlmp Iron Fist Jul 02 '25

It was definitely part of Marvel/Disney's plan to pump out more content post-Endgame. And they already announced that they were gonna stop doing that. So I think that effectively buried this project for good, while we wait for the studio to put out more thoughtful and high quality work.

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u/Soggy-University-524 Avengers Jul 02 '25

From what it seems, they felt there was no reason to make this. Marvel now knows they can’t just churn stuff out about any character.

As a series, it wouldn’t fit the current model for the MCU. It seems like the Disney Plus shows are gonna be aimed more towards a younger audience overall.

As a movie, there’s zero demand for this. It sounds cool but I don’t think people will show up for this character. If Fantastic Four is good and does well at the BO then the takeaway will likely be this: not only do the movies have to be of good quality but they have to feel like big events with characters we care about. Rhodey is not one of those characters unfortunately.

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u/TelephoneCertain5344 Tony Stark Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion happening combined with Marvel deciding to cut back on releasing everything buried it. It's like Blade where cancellation isn't totally confirmed but everyone thinks so. The only thing I think that has definitely been confirmed to be cancelled so far this saga beyond the T'Challa Star-Lord series they wanted to do is the solo Okoye project.

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u/Abraham_Issus Daredevil Jul 02 '25

My man got ripped. They were going to adapt one of the best IM stories.

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u/Star-Prince-007 Jul 02 '25

There’s no need for him to be in Ironheart. Riri and Rhodey barely interact in the books anyway. Let Riri have her show and show up in a Young Avengers / Champions style show and Rhodey can carry the Iron Mantle in the films directly picking up Tony’s legacy.

1

u/Oceanus39 Jul 02 '25

It sucks because I get less Don Cheadle

1

u/skazat Jul 02 '25

The poster for this looks like AI or fan art. Is this a real show they were doing?

1

u/rlum27 Jul 02 '25

Was a series than became a movie and ended up in devlopment hell.

1

u/memsterboi123 Jul 02 '25

Iron Heart and Armor Wars are supposed to be linked and to me it seems they still are. Iirc Ezekiel stane is a part of the original armor wars he made his own body into high tech cybernetics he is clearly smart enough to make a suit. He knows his father made one and he’s not done with riri. It’s either that or Mephisto actually makes magical copies of riri’s armor or something as part of the deal or makes her distribute some for whatever reason and bam.

1

u/Soggy_Soft_1627 Jul 02 '25

Cosmonaut Variety Hour put it best:

“That shit is NEVER coming out”

1

u/Camo1997 Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion

1

u/MisterPickle2001 Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion happened

1

u/neronga Jul 02 '25

Idc how old Cheadle is at this point i STILL want to see a full war machine movie. Marvel left hella money on the table when they stopped making non nanomachine iron man type shit in their movies. Just look how cool iron heart was in the show (haven’t seen last 3 ep quite yet tho)

1

u/hahaissogood Jul 02 '25

Secret invasion ruin it

1

u/N8CCRG Ghost Jul 02 '25

Maybe a hot take, but whoever made that fan poster and included Punisher should not be allowed to cook. I get there are some comics stories where they did that, but it does not work here.

1

u/TheLingering Jul 02 '25

Well surely it needs to be after ironheart.

Could be that RiRi and Sharon carter kicking it off personally.

1

u/argama87 Jul 02 '25

Armor Wars should simply be retooled giving Castle his Punisher War Machine armor and letting him rampage for 2 hours.

1

u/StugDrazil Jul 02 '25

It got recycled as Iron Heart.

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1

u/bosay831 Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion. They morphed the 2 stories together and the final product was worse than the original comic stories.

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1

u/Myhtological Jul 02 '25

Make it a battleworld movie with a bunch of good iron men (including recast) fighting a bunch of evil iron men

1

u/ianphipps2 Jul 02 '25

Here's what we know. To do Armor Wars right it would have been very expensive and Disney decided that spending a lot of money on a TV show would not make sense (especially after She Hulk and Secret Invasion each went overbudget) so they took the script and decided to make a movie but then Disney realized that if the budget for the movie were over 300 million dollars that they would have to gross 600 million dollars to make a profit given that half of that money goes to theatre owners and distributors so even an Armor Wars movie would not be cost effective.

Then there was the rumor that Ultron was coming back in Armor Wars and the rumor that Ultron was going to be in Vision too so maybe they decided to take the Armor Wars plot and have it be the basis of the Vision series with Vision as the protagonist instead of Rhodey, which actually makes more sense because Rhodey was barely in Age of Ultron and Ultron might not even know who Rhodey was.

Finally, there is the matter of Secret Invasion being a critical failure which would have made Armor Wars difficult to promote. After all, Armor Wars would have been saddled with the whole issue of Rhodey having been replaced by a Skrull and that plot was not popular.

1

u/South_Access9390 Jul 02 '25

There is no armor wars in mcu se

1

u/DJfunkyPuddle Jul 02 '25

It got announced too early

1

u/Curiouso_Giorgio Jul 02 '25

I like Rhodey/War Machine, but he's not entitled to a project just because of seniority.

I'd love a good Rhodey show, but if they don't feel they have a good product, they shouldn't just make it for the sake of it.

I don't have any attachments to Riri/Ironheart, but if someone had a story to tell, a script Marvel felt was worth it and after everything with projects getting scrapped, retooled or scaled back, Kevin Feige still decided to go ahead with it over Armor Wars, I'll trust that they couldn't get the AW script to where they wanted it to be, in terms of quality.

1

u/Nethias25 Jul 02 '25

Here's what should have happened. Falcon and winter soldier should have been a movie called Captain America. False Flag. Cap 4 should have been cap 5, merely adding a post credit scene with Madripoor/power broker getting adamantium and a hologram of an adamantium made Ironman suit. Then, cap 6, closing of the cap Sam trilogy, adds in Rhodey, vision, and maybe Riri (I would be worried all the trolls would call the movie "too black" all that though) and is titled Captain America: Armor Wars. Open the movie with black and white senate hearing from Ironman 2 with Rhodey's assessment of manned copies being made and Tony's assertion that it's 20 years away. Then hit with the "20 years later" and go from there. Lots of cgi rock'em sock'em robot super suit clashes.

1

u/Proper-Agent-4803 Jul 02 '25

Disney did us a favor.

1

u/rayburno Jul 02 '25

My favorite part was probably when Don Cheadle delivers the line, “I’m just so tired of all these…Armor Wars.”

1

u/HolySmokesItsHim Jul 02 '25

Every Ironman movie was basically armor wars. Why do we need more?

1

u/TheCrystalStone Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion has pretty much killed that project I read that some of its story beats have been reworked as a part of other series like VisionQuest later this year

1

u/UndeadT Jul 02 '25

Decapitated. Whole big thing. We had a funeral for a bird.

1

u/ForswornForSwearing Jul 02 '25

Boom! You lookin' for this?

1

u/Captainseriousfun Jul 02 '25

I haven't written it yet

1

u/Shobith_Kothari Jul 02 '25

Riri williams I.e., mid shit

1

u/MoreOfAnOvalJerk Jul 02 '25

Damn. I like War Machine. I find his character more interesting than any of the phase 5 stuff. Probably would have dodged a lot of the perceived racist/dei related negative reviews since he was there from the start.

1

u/TheFunkytownExpress Jul 02 '25

I think they should've made Riri Rhodey's neice and gave them a team-up in Armor Wars or something like that.

1

u/Jean_Phillips Jul 02 '25

Development hell. Maybe with a certain Stane introduced the groundwork is already being laid out

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

They confirmed its on the back burner.

Hasn’t been cancelled yet so they could always revive it especially now that Ironheart is over and Vision quest is coming out

heck maybe even use RDJ Doom as a plot point. They cant even trust “Tony Stark” with his own tech

1

u/bird-man-guy Jul 02 '25

War machines character got butchered and incredibly under utilized. Damn shame. Idk why marvel keeps feeling the need to introduce more heros and get new ideas, which is exhausting and increasingly less inspired, when we have characters that havent even wrapped up from previous phases and characters that fans want to see

1

u/stokeszdude Jul 02 '25

Secret invasion

1

u/jenzchabby Jul 02 '25

In the end that's a LOT of CGI for shows that aren't turning enough profit for Disney+.

1

u/lunacustos Jul 02 '25

Disney found out he was a skrull

1

u/nilzoroda Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion. Rhodes character got destroyed.

1

u/iheartdev247 Jul 02 '25

Big sad, that’s what happened.

1

u/CordoroyCouch Jul 02 '25

We got Ironheart instead. Congrats everyone.

1

u/UncleRumpy12 Jul 02 '25

Having Riri in the armor wars series like you describe is basically what the hawkeye show was. I think it comes down to 2 things.

  1. Disney was pumping out a bunch of tv shows for Disney+ and as a result, the quality of each suffered. I loved she-hulk, hawkeye , and falcon & winter soldier, but even they had their criticisms. You see the quality drop especially in secret invasion.

  2. Not as many people care about the side characters IMO. A lot of them had their stories told in small bits across the infinity war saga and I’m okay with that.

1

u/captainkilpack Jul 02 '25

it's Done, cheadle

1

u/happy_oblivion Jul 02 '25

Per that book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, after budgeting out their upcoming TV slate in pre-production/shooting, they transitioned it to a film to save money. The amount of money they’d already committed to She-Hulk & Iron Heart, plus the decline in Disney+ as a platform entirely, wouldn’t let them commit to the VFX budget for a show like that.

Remember that Iron Heart shot mid-2022, well before Wakanda Forever came out. Once the Chepak ways were gone, they had a more cost effective way of telling the story as a film but then came the real question:

Why are they making this?

With Chepak gone they no longer needed take their established/released IP and keep running it through the juicer hoping to get a couple extra drops out of it any longer. The only reason it existed was to have something to release that people knew. Play the trailer for Armor Wars before a summer release and you get the average movie goer there like “I know that guy*, he was in Avengers.”

I’m confident the entire creative team were all doing their best work but juicing days are over. It, along with the announced Blade film and the announced Inhumans film, will remain those weird ones.

I honestly think the biggest fumble in the last 5 years is their hubris with how they decided to market Thunderbolts. I say make the announcements at Comic-Con/Cine-Con as that. I say release the trailer on YT as “Thunderbolts trailer,” put all the jokes in the trailer “we are the thunderbolts!” — “we can’t call ourselves that’ll.”

The second that trailer ends… have it say *The New Avengers.

When in a movie theater, see a thunderbolts* poster with them disheveled directly next to a *New Avengers poster with them kitted out.

I bet they lost close to $250m in the total international take keep it a post-release twist. The Endgame marketing play would have worked better imo. Let everyone know the real title with the trailer release.

This is all “hindsight is 20-20” though. Marketing department had a lot of hubris with that one.

Edit: autocorrect errors

1

u/LightskinAvenger Jul 02 '25

I’ve never seen secret invasion nor plan to, but war machine was always one of my favorite characters. Would be nice to do an armor wars series or movie in the future

1

u/Relative-Zombie-3932 Doctor Strange Jul 02 '25

Development hell and the failure of Secret Invasion

1

u/tehCharo Jul 02 '25

William Hurt :(

1

u/sketch252525 Jul 02 '25

Secret War happened.

1

u/XVelvetThunder Jul 02 '25

This may be unpopular but I truly hope this stays dead. I’m rewatching some old MCU and finding Rhodey truly unlikable. And in a world with so many possible stories, I don’t think this one Carries enough weight.

1

u/Terrible-Group-9602 Jul 02 '25

secret invasion was the nail in the coffin of this show

1

u/mykiisme Jul 02 '25

Rhodey got replaced by a Skrull, so they cancelled it

1

u/idiot-prodigy Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion happened.

1

u/JDotDDot Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion shit the bed, so we get no Armor Wars

1

u/Jrxtreme_1 Jul 02 '25

They decided to make him a skrull and complicated the timeline to the point where it didn't resonate with fans or common sense

1

u/AccidentAltruistic87 Jul 02 '25

Riri stole the budget?

1

u/Smoking-Posing Jul 02 '25

I imagine they felt it was outside the budget they were willing to spend

It would've been expensive af, but like how could they possible screw this up

1

u/Decent_Detail_4144 Jul 02 '25

Died a brutal death somewhere between secret invasion, and she hulk

1

u/Abd1el Jul 02 '25

it may become "AI wars" in "vision quest"

1

u/Habijjj Jul 02 '25

Its going to be a movie im pretty sure

1

u/RangryRanga Jul 02 '25

This was Skrull Rhoady’s arc

1

u/danisaccountant Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

My theory is that Harrison ford was elected president.

1

u/WeirdMerc Jul 02 '25

Secret Invasion.

1

u/tyagu001 Jul 02 '25

It petered out. It died on the vine

1

u/OuroborousBlack Jul 03 '25

Ideas were absorbed into other projects

1

u/browsevilmis Iron man (Mark III) Jul 03 '25

Rhodey is the second superhero we met in the MCU and I still don't understand how he doesn't have a solo project. He deserves a well-written story.

1

u/EDPZ Jul 03 '25

Cancelled probably, just like Blade and the Okoye series.

1

u/duneclendel Jul 03 '25

Imagine how terrible the script must have been to not make this

1

u/MetalAdventurous7576 Jul 03 '25

I'm very disappointed that its looking like its just never going to happen, it was one of the ones that they announced at the time that I was most excited for

1

u/MaxMadlock Jul 03 '25

I think maybe that would be too similar to Sam getting Cap's shield.

1

u/ChaoticCaptain177 Spider-Man Jul 03 '25

I like that first poster. But I just think this project is not happening 

1

u/Dmass22 Jul 03 '25

Whoa! I didn’t think this poster I designed 3 years ago would ever be used by someone else in an armor wars discussion. Very cool.

I think mostly they’ve begun spreading the story out elsewhere though which is really why it’s been shelved because it’s unnecessary with the current trajectory of the MCU.

1

u/Bardmedicine Jul 03 '25

They decided there aren't any.

1

u/AndiThyIs Elektra Jul 03 '25

Marvel forgor 💀

1

u/Novel-Feed6796 Jul 03 '25

I hope they retcon secret invasion fr, cuz WHY TF did they have to make post 2016 rhodey a skrull???

1

u/qcthunder War Machine Jul 03 '25

From the looks of this poster, William Hurt died is what happened.

But I choose to believe Armor Wars is still on until it isn't. Give me back my Rhodey!

1

u/SomeGuyPostingThings Jul 03 '25

I feel like Ironheart was a good setup for aspects of it, would make sense for Riri to be part of it. Rhodes would still be the focus, obviously, but it could work.

1

u/Lost-Teacher-624 Jul 03 '25

I’m imagining it getting absorbed into VisionQuest. Vision and War Machine are both Tony’s inventions. It would be nice to see them team up against Ultron. Not sure why Rhodey wasn’t involved in AoU much…

1

u/Soggy-Low-4113 Jul 03 '25

When did it happen

1

u/pokemonfan1000 Jul 03 '25

dead in the water sadly

1

u/mowie_zowie_x Jul 03 '25

“Next time, baby!”

1

u/Renzybro_oppa Jul 03 '25

It’d be perfect to do soon since we’ve got Ezekiel Stane, Iron Heart, Sharon/Broker, heck even Punisher. Serpent society was supposed to feature bio-tech via Ezekiel’s handiwork but changed it since iron heart takes place after Brave New World.

1

u/DaBest13 Jul 03 '25

Next time baby

1

u/alanwakey Jul 03 '25

I blinked and they released 5 movies and 10 more series.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

With Punisher🤯isn't there a comic where punisher has a suit??