It’s been a while since Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have seen the real James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, played by Don Cheadle. Last year, Marvel Studios threw fans for a loop in their miniseries, ‘Secret Invasion,’ by revealing that a shapeshifting Skrull named Raava had been posing as Rhodey for an unknown period. ‘Secret Invasion’ director Ali Selim later confirmed that Rhodey was kidnapped by Raava and her fellow Skrulls shortly after his spinal injury in 2016’s ‘Captain America: Civil War.’ This plot twist caused quite a stir amongst MCU fans, with many finding it unsettling to learn that, among other things, the Rhodey we saw mourning Tony Stark’s death in 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ wasn’t actually the real deal.
However, Don Cheadle seems to be cool with the twist, as long as Marvel Studios delivers on its original plan for Rhodey. In an interview with TV Line, Cheadle revealed, “It wasn’t a demand. It was a request. ‘What do you think about playing this?’ And it was to set up stuff in the following thing.” The ‘thing’ Cheadle refers to is ‘Armor Wars,’ a film set to star him in a lead role. Initially planned as a Disney+ series, ‘Armor Wars’ was redeveloped into a feature film in 2022.
Since that announcement, updates on the project have been scarce, leaving Cheadle just as clueless as fans about its status. When asked about ‘Armor Wars’ progress, Cheadle replied, “You can find out and let me know.” He added, “I’m not sure where anything is right now. I think things are going through a lot of changes, and we’ll see what happens.” When TV Line pointed out that it would be unfortunate if viewers’ last meaningful interaction with Rhodey was while he was being impersonated by a Skrull, Cheadle jokingly retorted, “Yeah, no s**t.”
While Cheadle isn’t sure what the future holds for ‘Armor Wars,’ he seems confident about the potential impact it could have on both his and viewers’ perceptions of ‘Secret Invasion’s’ Rhodey twist. “If the following thing happens, and all those things were set up, then that’s one thing,” he stated. “If, as you said, it doesn’t, then we can talk about how I feel about it after!”
‘Secret Invasion’ is currently streaming on Disney+.
