Avengers: Infinity War was an epic movie, and one that had no other choice than to leave a lot of ideas on the cutting room floor. Among them was Bruce Banner Hulking out before smashing out of Tony Stark's Hulkbuster armour, while there had also once been plans for Doctor Strange to don Iron Man's suit.
This latest scene revealed not to have made it into the movie never got past the concept art stage, but it would have been a fun one to watch play out on screen.
As concept artist Phil Saunders explains, "[James Rhodes] is fighting the battle of Edinburgh remotely, with his [Tony Stark] designed leg braces locked into a holographic control system for [War Machine] mk4. [Bruce Banner] would have been piloting [Hulkbuster] in the battle against Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive."
"Sadly, the sequence was cut early on," the artist adds. "Still, it was fun to problem solve how to depict the overlap of the real and holographic action going on!"
Seeing as we saw nothing like this in Avengers: Infinity War (Hulkbuster was nowhere near that Edinburgh fight, for example), it must have been cut very early on in the writing process. Ultimately, War Machine would only factor into the movie's final battle where he teamed up with Captain America's Secret Avengers to defend Wakanda.
Clearly, the idea was that Rhodey wouldn't have been fit enough to fly back into action following the events of Captain America: Civil War. Utilising his armour in this way would have been fun to see, though we understand why it might have been a tad overcomplicated to include in a movie that was already very busy.
Check out this newly revealed Avengers: Infinity War concept art below: