Between both upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows, there is no shortage of Marvel Cinematic Universe projects on the way in the coming years… but there are announced titles that remain a bit more mysterious than others. One of the standouts within that group is Armor Wars, which was first announced all the way back in late 2020 and has undergone some major behind-the-scenes changes as it has made its way through development.
So what is going on with Armor Wars and where do things presently stand? What we do know about the project is admittedly limited, but between that information and machinations unfolding in the near future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are reasons to be a touch concerned that it will be a production that never starts rolling cameras.
What We Know About Armor Wars
Right off the bat, it should be noted that Armor Wars has never had a release date (it’s not a case of Marvel Studios regularly postponing a project a la what has been going on with the Blade movie). That being said, it has had a complicated development history. When the title was first announced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming slate, the plan was to make it as a Disney+ original series. But while other titles announced at the same time as Armor Wars have either been completed (Secret Invasion, I Am Groot) or are on the way soon (Ironheart), the journey for the Iron Man spinoff has been much more complicated.
I point out that the original plan for Armor Wars was to make it as a series because that’s no longer the direction that has been set. At D23 Expo in 2022, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that the idea for the project was pivoting and that instead of being a show, it would instead become a movie. It was said at the time that medium would be a better fit for the story… but that was pretty much it, as it wasn’t given a release window or specifically integrated into plans for Phase 5 and Phase 6.
As for what we’ve heard about Armor Wars in the time since then, there are reasons to wonder if the movie is ever actually going to get to the production stage.
- Yassir Lester Remains Attached As A Writer, But The Project Still Doesn’t Have A Director
- Don Cheadle Is Set To Star… But What About The Events Of Secret Invasion?
- The Iron Man-Shaped Hole In The Marvel Cinematic Universe May Be Getting Otherwise Filled
Who Is Making Armor Wars?
When a project at a major studio undergoes a change as big as changing mediums, it often coincides with shakeups on the creative side – but to the credit of Marvel Studios, Armor Wars is a project that has kept the same vision in play from pretty much the start. Yassir Lester was hired to be the head writer for the series in August 2021, and it was confirmed by Kevin Feige at D23 Expo 2022 that he would be staying onboard to write the screenplay. Lester has remained attached, having commented on the blockbuster’s development as recently as October 2024.
What Armor Wars doesn’t have presently, however, is a director attached who will bring the script to life, and you don’t have to be an obsessive cinephile to know that the hiring of a director is a pretty damn integral part of a movie’s development. The fact that there isn’t one on board suggests that there isn’t a firm story that is ready to have a particular vision applied, and that’s a troubling look from an outside perspective.
How Will Armor Wars Be Impacted By The Fallout From Secret Invasion?
If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan who watches everything within the canon, you know that the status of Don Cheadle’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes is very complicated presently. When Armor Wars was first announced as a TV series, the last time we had seen the character was in the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame; he hadn’t even yet made his cameo in the first episode of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Since then, however, Cheadle played a key role in 2023’s Secret Invasion – which includes the revelation that the real James Rhodes was kidnapped by Skrulls at one point and replaced by a shapeshifting alien doppelgänger.
It should go without saying that this development has to have a huge impact on Armor Wars, and it very much feels like a wrench in the gears. Based on the Marvel Comics story of the same name, the story is meant to concern the effort by Rhodey a.k.a. War Machine to stop the proliferation of Tony Stark’s incredible Iron Man technology – but that gets a bit muddled when you have to shoehorn in information about the protagonist’s alien abduction and absence from the world for an unclear number of years. I can easily imagine this being a creative roadblock around which the movie can’t navigate.
Could The Mix Of Ironheart And Robert Downey Jr.’s Return To The MCU Render Armor Wars Unnecessary?
Let’s now address the elephant in the room. When Armor Wars was first announced as a new Marvel Cinematic Universe project, there existed an Iron Man-shaped hole to fill. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame, and the franchise understandably didn’t want to squander all of the love that exists for the character and his spectacular technology. A new series with War Machine at the center made for a logical project to develop… but with everything that has happened in the last few years, the time for it may be gone.
In this conversation, the first project to keep in mind is Ironheart starring Dominique Thorne as the titular hero a.k.a. Riri Williams. Announced at the same as Armor Wars, the Disney+ original series has had some delays of its own (it was shot all the way back in mid-2022, prior to the character’s big debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), but the six episode series is finally set to arrive in June 2025. And the character using Iron Man-esque equipment arguably makes Rhodey’s story somewhat redundant.
The other part of this element of the discussion is the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. He won’t be back as Tony Stark, as it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 that he will be playing Victor Von Doom a.k.a. Doctor Doom, but I still contemplate it having a big picture impact on Armor Wars. Between Ironheart and Downey Jr.’s return, one could argue that the aforementioned Iron Man-shaped hole has been filled in the aggregate… and Armor Wars is still stuck in development hell.
At present, the project’s future is hazy. Comments made by those involved in recent months have suggested that the film remains in active development, but one doesn’t get the sense that a great amount of resources are being put toward it, and it’s certainly not being emphasized as one of the MCU’s big upcoming titles on the road to Avengers: Doomsday (coming in May 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (coming in May 2027). Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest updates about the project in the coming months/years.
