Marvel upgrades Armor Wars to feature film

Yassir Lester, who was hired as head writer for the Disney Plus show, will be moved up as the film's screenwriter. This is not the first time a major change of format was made for a Marvel project. Hawkeye was first envisioned as a film, before it was decided to flesh out the plotline as a Disney Plus show.

Armor Wars was an epic comic book storyline that ran in the Iron Man and Avengers books from Marvel Comics. The story centered on Tony Stark (the Invincible Iron Man) and his obsession to reclaim his stolen technology. After the mercenary Spymaster stole schematics of his older Iron Man designs, Stark discovered the technology fell into the hands of friends and foes alike.

This led Iron Man to battle super-villains, as well as S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and the U.S. government. At the time, Stark still had a secret identity, thus publicly claiming that the Iron Man committing these acts had gone rogue.

Obviously, one major change to the MCU Armor Wars is the absence of Tony Stark as the main protagonist. Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man sacrificed himself in Avengers: Endgame to defeat Thanos by using the Infinity Stones. Thus, it falls in the hands of his best friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) to recover the technology.

This would not be unusual, as Rhodey has taken over from Tony in the comics as well. The War Machine armor was actually first worn by Tony Stark. Written by Len Kaminski and Kevin Hopgood in Iron Man #281, the armor was created to go against The Masters of Silence who were immune to Iron Man's standard repulsors and unibeam. Stark called the armor the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit Mark XI.

Tony wore the armor until Iron Man #284 wherein he was presumed dead from a techno-organic disease and Rhodey took over both the mantle of Iron Man and as CEO of Stark Enterprises. When Stark was revived, Rhodes was enraged by the deception and left to create his own path, taking the armor with him and calling himself War Machine.

While the plot for the MCU Armor Wars has not been revealed, it is likely that it will take elements from these two storylines. Plus, Don Cheadle has been revealed to be appearing in Secret Invasion alongside Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. In all likelihood, the events in Secret Invasion and Rhodey's involvement will be carried over to the Armor Wars feature film.

Fans are also clamoring for Sam Rockwell to return as Justin Hammer. As the corrupt head of Hammer Industries, Justin Hammer was arrested by the end of Iron Man 2 and had a brief but funny bit in the one-shot All Hail the King (which also starred Ben Kingsley's not-Mandarin, Trevor Slattery). As Justin Hammer was the mastermind responsible for the comic book Armor Wars, Sam Rockwell's version could be incorporated into the movie.

As of this date, no director has been attached or additional casting confirmed for Armor Wars. In addition, no official target date for the theatrical release has been set.