Marvel’s Armor Wars shifts to feature film as Disney+ plans are scrapped

The upcoming Armor Wars series – starring Don Cheadle – has been scrapped and will now be developed into a feature film instead.

An Armor Wars series featuring the return of Don Cheadle’s Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, AKA War Machine, was first announced by Kevin Fiege in 2020. Since the initial announcement, updates on the series have been few and far between. At the Disney D23 expo this year, Cheadle and Feige revealed the logo for the show and stated that it would be a six-part series. That no longer appears to be the case, however, as the series has since shifted to a feature film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources say that the reasoning for the shift from TV series to movie is that the studio felt that the project would be better suited as a feature film. The sources also added that the studio is “committed in getting the story told the right way.”

Marvel fans may remember a similar change being made for the Hawkeye series which – despite eventually becoming a TV adaption – was initially intended to be released as a feature-length film. 

Armor Wars will be written by Yassir Laster who had previously been hired as the head writer for the series. However, no word or mention has been given to who will be directing the new film adaptation.

The character of Rhodey was first introduced way back in the original Iron Man film in 2008. While actor Terrence Howard played the role initially, Don Cheadle took over in Iron Man 2. Since then, Rhodey has gone on to appear in many MCU films including Captain America: Civil War and the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

Rhodey has also made his mark on the TV projects of the MCU, appearing briefly at the beginning of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Cheadle will be reprising his role as Rhodey in the upcoming Marvel TV series Secret Invasion. Given that the show is likely to release in early 2023, there is a chance that the events of that series will directly affect Armor Wars.

Marvel is yet to confirm a release date for Armor Wars or give away any indication of where the film will fit on the MCU future projects timeline.