Armor Wars was supposed to be a Disney+ series, presumably serving as the next chapter in the stories of both Ironheart and War Machine. While we still anticipate that being the case, it was recently revealed that the plan now is for the Don Cheadle-led project to be a movie instead.
Marvel Studios is no doubt hoping it will find a similar level of box office success to the Iron Man franchise, and executive producer Nate Moore has now explained the reason for the change.
Talking on The Town podcast (via CBR), the executive said that, "There were some great ideas that were coming out for that show, but that, to be quite honest, felt too big for that show."
"Our Disney+ shows are awesome, and we love them, but the budgets are not the same as the features, that's not secret," he continued. "And when you're talking about a show that wants to be about seeing all the cool armors, and Don Cheadle interacting with all these armors, and the legacy of Tony Stark, that became cost-prohibitive to do as a show."
Moore would go on to add that a bigger budget means Armor Wars can now adapt "some of the beautiful imagery" from the comic books, a strong indication this is going to be an epic movie.
While little in the way of plot details about this project have been revealed, the source material obviously provides some clues. We have to believe Ironheart and War Machine will be front and centre, anyway, taking on a powerful threat likely orchestrated by the returning Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer (it will be a missed opportunity if not).
Armor Wars is expected to be released in 2024 or, more likely, 2025. As a result, it could be a while before any concrete details are revealed, even with a potential 2023 production start date.