In Avengers: Endgame, Colonel James Rhodes joined the Avengers in collecting the Infinity Stones in the hopes of saving everyone who Thanos snapped away. Like every other Avenger, Rhodey got ready by suiting up moments before Hulk would put the Nano Gauntlet on and snap his fingers. However, seconds later, the Mad Titan attacked, destroying the Avengers' compound and forcing Rhodey to eject from his suit. But before the big, climactic battle between Thanos' forces and Earth's Mightiest Heroes would begin, Rhodey would put on a new version of the Iron Patriot armor.
This new armor was bulkier than any other suit the character had previously worn before. Just by the look of it, the suit appeared to pack quite a punch -- only it was unclear how much. However, Hot Toys recently unveiled pictures of its upcoming collectible figure of Endgame's Iron Patriot, and it shows how weaponized the suit actually was. Effectively, this makes this version of War Machine the deadliest Avenger yet.
The images of the Iron Patriot Hot Toys figure clearly show that it has a far more aggressive design and that its bulkier elements were actually housing space for all manner of firepower. In fact, on top of War Machine's signature shoulder gun (which now comes in a pair), the Iron Patriot is also armed with turrets and rocket launchers. And, on top of all the signature arm weapons that have come before, there seems to be extra weaponry on the Iron Patriot's forearms to make it even deadlier than before.
While War Machine was essentially the military response to Iron Man, Iron Patriot appears to be the military response to War Machine. Clearly, this armor was designed for warfare, and seeing all of these weapons gives a definitive answer as to why Rhodey chose to wear this specific armor for the final battle against Thanos.
Unfortunately, fans didn't end up seeing a whole lot of the armor in action in the film. In fact, during Avengers: Endgame's climactic battle, there was so much going on, so many characters involved and so much ground to cover that Rhodey didn't get to use the armor to its fullest potential. Surely, if the battle (and the movie) would have been longer, more time would have been devoted to the Iron Patriot, and fans could have seen all of its weaponry unleashed.
However, that doesn't mean that the armor won't be seen in action elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, Don Cheadle's contract may have ended with Endgame, but the character could always re-up his deal and return for further appearances. And since Tony Stark isn't around anymore to design any new suits, Rhodey could once again take to the skies as the Iron Patriot.
While he first took on the codename in Iron Man 3 as part of a propaganda move, the official return of the Iron Patriot could come as a statement following the death of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers' retirement. There's no better way to replace the heroes than by becoming an amalgam of the two
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.