Armor Wars will be released as feature film

Article by Kieran Burt.

Armor Wars will be released as a feature film, The Hollywood Reporter has announced. 

During the development for the series, those involved decided that the project would be better suited as a film, instead of a six-part Disney+ series.

Yassir Lester will write the feature, transitioning from his role as head writer for the Disney+ series. Don Cheadle will continue to reprise his role as Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, aka War Machine. 

This means that Armor Wars will be released theatrically. Marvel has yet to release any of its films solely on Disney+, and after Disney was sued by Scarlett Johansson in 2020 for their handling of the Black Widow film that is likely to remain the case. 

At D23, Marvel revealed a logo for the upcoming project, alongside the fact that this series will be set after Secret Invasion. 

The basic question that the film will be answering is what happens when Stark technology falls into the wrong hands? The film will likely take heavy inspiration from the comic book storyline of the same name, published in 1987 and 1988. No further plot details have been announced. 

The series was scheduled to begin production in 2023, though that is unlikely to take place. No director has been attached to the film. 

Where it will fit in Marvel’s busy slate is unclear, though a release date for the series was never set. Armor Wars was unveiled in 2020.

This isn’t the first time Marvel has altered the development of its projects in this way. Hawkeye was originally envisioned as a feature film before making the change to a Disney+ series. 

Cheadle has had a lengthy career playing Rhodey, first debuting as the character in 2010’s Iron Man 2. Rhodey was initially portrayed by Terrence Howard in the first Iron Man, before Marvel fired him. 

Cheadle will next appear as Rhodey in Secret Invasion, which also stars Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos. It is set to release in 2023.