Marvel's Armor Wars might just fire its opening salvo soon enough. The live-action television series, which will star Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstay Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, is allegedly set to start production much sooner than many had expected.
A long-sought update has apparently arrived regarding Armor Wars, pointing to a fall production in Atlanta. The idea, if true, would be a substantive development on the project, which Marvel Studios initially announced back in December 2020. Intriguingly enough, the claim did not come from a statement or news report. Rather, it was gleaned from a biography for a key Marvel producer published for a film industry conference held this past April by the University of Pennsylvania.
The entry in question belongs to Marvel Studios executive Jenna Berger, who was featured at the conference. While its prose seems innocuous enough at first glance, the bio's list of shows that Berger is currently producing provided a potent tidbit, stating of an unnamed TV project, "She most recently produced the upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel and is now in development on a new series starring Don Cheadle, which will film in Atlanta this fall."
Indeed, it doesn't take much to deduce that "a new series" over at Marvel Studios starring Cheadle is Armor Wars. While a confirmation about this notion has yet to manifest, it does seem noteworthy that, given Marvel's typically fastidious public relations team, no attempts were made to debunk the claim. However, as with all unconfirmed ideas, this one will have to remain in the grain-of-salt category until made official.
Armor Wars should please fans of the Iron Man films who are still mourning the martyrdom of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. The series will adapt one of the most famous story arcs from the pages of Marvel's Iron Man comic. Also titled "Armor Wars," the storyline took shape as a seven-issue arc that lasted from December 1987 to June 1988 from writers David Michelinie and Bob Layton with art by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith. In the comic story, crucial designs for Tony Stark's armor are stolen and sold to industrialist rival Justin Hammer, who then disseminates the technology to a vast array of signature Marvel villains. The result is a protracted and chaotic conflict.
Of course, with Cheadle's James Rhodes as the presumed protagonist in the upcoming MCU rendition of Armor Wars, significant changes are inevitable. Those changes will occur under the creative purview of head writer Yassir Lester (Black Monday, Earth to Ned). While the show's plot remains a mystery, it could dovetail into a related Marvel series, Ironheart, which will star newcomer Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a prodigious teenager who carries out Tony Stark's legacy in her own suit of armor. That series is also without an official release window but is expected to arrive before Armor Wars. That's because Riri/Ironheart is set to debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is currently slated for a December release in theaters.
Armor Wars does not yet have a release date on Disney+.
Source: University of Pennsylvania via Comic Book