Secret Invasion was not well-received by the majority of fans, and the plot point that seems to have come in for the most backlash was the twist involving Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle).
Making War Machine a Skrull imposter was one thing, but revealing (or at least, strongly implying) that the real Rhodey had been replaced by a shape-shifting alien shortly after sustaining his injury in Captain America: Civil War - rendering his emotional farewell to dying Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame meaningless - really didn't go over well.
As it turns out, Cheadle has some issues with the twist himself.
"Uh… you know, there was no… it wasn’t a demand. It was a request," the actor told TV Line when asked for his reaction to finding out about the Skrull twist. “'What do you think about playing this?' And it was to set up stuff in the following thing. So, if the following thing happens, and all those things were set up, then that’s one thing. If, as you said, it doesn’t, then we can talk about how I feel about it after!"
The "following thing" is Armor Wars, which was initially planned as a Disney+ series before being redeveloped as a feature. A recent rumor claimed that the studio has yet to make a "final decision" on the movie one way or the other, and could still choose not to move forward.
Unfortunately, Cheadle wasn't able to share a more positive update on the project.
"You can find out and let me know. [Laughs] I don’t know, 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, we’ll see what it is."
Plot details are still very much a mystery, but the story is expected to pick up after the events of Secret Invasion, and could show us exactly what happened to the real Rhodey when he was replaced by a Skrull imposter. If Armor Wars takes inspiration from David Michelinie and Bob Layton's comic run, it will likely focus on Tony Stark's advanced Iron Man tech falling into the wrong hands.
We don't know for certain who those hands will belong too, but rumor has it that Sam Rockwell is set to reprise his Iron Man 2 role as Justin Hammer, and Damage Control is also said to be involved.
Rockwell wasn't about to confirm or deny anything while promoting Argyle on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.
"Well, I'm waiting for the phone call.. I haven't gotten the phone call, no. I'm growing the beard and everything." He did add that he'd be interested in an MCU return should the opportunity arise, however. "Listen, I'm in dude. Yeah, let's go."