Credit: MarvelWith Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark and Chris Evans’ Captain America/Steve Rogers exiting the Marvel Comics-inspired Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the franchise has entered a new era known as the Multiverse Saga.
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Despite concerns about “superhero fatigue” and the firing of Jonathan Majors, who previously portrayed Kang the Conqueror, Marvel Studios is set to reshape the Marvel movie landscape once again.
In light of Majors’ departure and Marvel President Kevin Feige’s consideration of a transition from the Multiverse Saga to a new (likely) Mutant Saga featuring X-Men characters, Avengers 5, formerly Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and now titled Avengers: Doomsday, is in development. It is set to lead into Avengers: Secret Wars, which will center Robert Downey Jr.’s new role as the supervillain Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom.
It appears Disney is slowly shifting away from its original Avengers franchise within the MCU, leaning more on Sony’s Spider-Man and 20th Century Fox’s (now 20th Century Studios) X-Men properties, which predate the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the recent Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) has shown.
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Is Marvel Saying Goodbye to Iron Man: For Good?
Following Jonathan Majors’ departure and Marvel President Kevin Feige’s possible shift from the Multiverse Saga to a new Mutant Saga featuring X-Men characters, Avengers 5 — originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and now renamed Avengers: Doomsday — is currently in development.
The film is expected to lead into Avengers: Secret Wars, where Robert Downey Jr. will take on a new role as the supervillain Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom.
It now looks like Marvel star Don Cheadle, who plays the MCU’s War Machine/Colonel James Rhodes AKA Rhodey, Iron Man/Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) best friend, is further hinting that the Iron Man franchise movie, Armor Wars, has been canceled during his TODAY show visit.
What would have essentially been Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 4 to follow on from Iron Man 3 is now seemingly in jeopardy following earlier rumors from insiders that Disney was allegedly keen on scrapping several previously-announced MCU projects — namely, Mahershala Ali’s production issue–riddled Blade and Cheadle (and other Iron Man franchise-centric) Armor Wars.
During his recent visit to the TODAY show, Cheadle was quizzed on the fate of James Rhodey Rhodes, AKA War Machine’s movie Armor Wars, and whether he had any updates about the upcoming movie. Interestingly, the star played looked decidedly shifty, asking dryly, “What’s Armor Wars?” before insinuating that saying anything on the topic would result in him having to “kill” the hosts. The TODAY show shares the clip on X/Twitter:
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 5, 2024
With Tony Stark’s iconic actor headed for a totally different role and franchise, perhaps Disney is keen to have fans forget about the Iron Man legacy specifically and leave the franchise firmly in the MCU’s past.
Planned by Marvel Studios to be based on (presumably) the Marvel comic book Armor Wars storyline (referred to as the Stark Wars in-universe), a seven-issue Iron Man storyline, written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, with artwork by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith.
The story of the Armor Wars series of events focuses on Tony Stark’s fight to reclaim stolen Stark technology based on his Iron Man armor designs. In the MCU, the responsibility is likely now rerouted to Cheadle’s Rhodey and other Iron Man franchise icons.
The last we heard of Colonel James Rhodes was when the character was revealed to have been body-swapped with a Skrull in 2022’s Secret Invasion, which was led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Other Iron Man franchise regulars like former Stark driver (and Head of Security) Happy Hogan was devastated following the loss of Melissa Tomei’s Aunt May (Peter Parker’s Aunt from the Tom Holland Spider-Man films), and Pepper Potts grieving after Stark’s death in Endgame with their daughter, while still ostensibly acting as the Stark Industries CEO.
Will the plotline introduced in Spider-Man where Iron Man technology was stolen under Happy Hogan’s nose ever be resolved? Will we see Tony Stark ever return, or is the character (and associated franchise) dead in the water? Only time will tell now. Maybe Dominique Thorne’s Iron Heart Disney+ (Disney Plus) series will be the closest thing we get to a continuation of the Iron Man storyline now.
Do you think Armor Wars is about to be fully canned by Disney? Could Robert Downey Jr. have returned as Tony Stark somehow if he wasn’t playing Doctor Doom? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!