Armor Wars was first announced as a Disney+ TV series in 2020. Yassir Lester was hired as Head Writer in August 2021 but countless delays followed until, in September 2022, we learned it was being redeveloped as a movie.
We've heard little to nothing about the project since, though Secret Invasion was clearly meant to set the stage for the movie by strongly hinting that Rhodey had been replaced by a shape-shifting Skrull after Captain America: Civil War (and before Avengers: Infinity War).
It was a neat idea on the surface, but fans weren't happy about how that diminished his farewell to Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. The Skrull Rhodey also didn't exactly do enough during his time as War Machine to make the switch as impactful as required.
With that in mind, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to learn many of Armor Wars' ideas have supposedly been repurposed for the upcoming Vision series.
This rumour comes our way from The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, and we'd imagine he's referring to Ultron's return and perhaps even the fallout from Damage Control acquiring Iron Man's technology during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It's worth noting that this doesn't necessarily mean Armor Wars won't happen. Instead, if it's been pushed down the release calendar - as Marvel Studios looks to focus on quality over quantity - then it might have been necessary to borrow some plot points for Vision.
Of course, there's also the question of whether moviegoers will be interested enough in a War Machine movie that doesn't feature Iron Man!
"Uh...you know, there was no...it wasn’t a demand. It was a request," Don Cheadle recently said of Secret Invasion's big 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!"
Asked where things stand with Armor Wars, the actor added, "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."
It wasn't an overly promising update and it's looking increasingly unlikely that Armor Wars will ever become a reality. Still, if some of its best ideas are being used for Vision, then that's something!
Terry Matalas will be Vision's showrunner. Paul Bettany returns as the title character following the events of WandaVision and James Spader recently boarded the cast as Ultron.