In the wake of Secret Invasion's big revelation, what exactly is going on with Armor Wars?
Even using their usual hush-hush policies, Marvel has been unusually quiet in regards to disclosing details on the project. However, the social media "scoopers" have used the fact that not much is known about Armor Wars to offer up several new rumors. Chief among them is the return of Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer.
Recently appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the release of Argylle, Rockwell was asked to comment on the rumors about Hammer's return in Armor Wars.
Said Rockwell, "Well, I'm waiting for the phone call...I haven't gotten the phone call, no. I'm growing the beard and everything."
However, he also shared that should Marvel actually call, he would be game to reprise the role, "Listen, I'm in dude. Yeah, let's go."
The Armor Wars discussion starts at the 03:55 mark in the video below.
On December 10, 2020, during Disney's 2020 Investor Day, Kevin Feige, revealed that an Armor Wars television series was in development for Disney+. In August 2021, Yassir Lester (Black Monday; Girls; The Carmichael Show) was hired as the head writer of the show.
However, in September 2022, Armor Wars was revealed to be redeveloped as a movie instead of a TV show, with Lester set to turn the various episode scripts into a screenplay.
Somewhat reliable sources The Cosmic Circus and Daniel Richtman have both stated that Hammer will return in the film. Other rumors also state that James Spader's Ultron and Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams/Iron Heart are also set to appear.
To date, Marvel has only confirmed that Don Cheadle is set to reprise his MCU role as James Rhodey aka War Machine.
During Secret Invasion, we learned that Rhodey has been replaced by a Skrull since the events of Captain America: Civil War.
Previously, Cheadle teased Armor Wars (back when it was still a TV show) would deal with exploring who Rhody is outside of the armor.
"I don’t think we’ve ever really dug into him, and now it’s an opportunity to really explore his emotional life, his interior life, his relationships, his trajectory, where he wants to go, what his challenges are. Obviously, you have to pay off the Marvel stuff. And be in the lore of the mythology of the character and the MCU in general," said Cheadle.
Of course, Marvel Comics readers will recognize that the project takes its name from the 7-issue written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton with art by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith.
In the 7-issue run, Tony Stark discovers that Spymaster has stolen his designs for some early Iron Man armor and sold it to Justin Hammer. Hammer then uses the designs to upgrade the power of several D-list villains such as Stilt-Man, Mauler, Controller, the Beetle and several others.
Ultimately, the U.S. government gets its hands on the designs and builds their own armored core of soliders that they plan to use to police rogue superheroes.
With Tony Stark comatose in the MCU, the upcoming Armor Wars film will be only loosely based on the comic series if it's looking to borrow anything other than the comic's name.
Phase 6 of the MCU ends on May 7, 2027 with Avengers: Secret Wars so it's likely that Armor Wars could be released in late-2027/early-2028 at best.