Don Cheadle Thinks A Writer Has Been Hired For The War Machine Spin-Off

War Machine in Iron Man 2
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Back in November there was a report that Marvel was planning a spin-off for the Iron Man character War Machine. According to the story, the studio was putting out a pitch to writers the script the film, but we haven't heard anything about it since...until now.

MTV caught up with Iron Man 2 star Don Cheadle at the Sundance Film Festival, where he's promoting his newest film, The Guard, and the actor revealed that forward progress has been made with the project. According the Cheadle, Marvel is currently working on the project and he "thinks" they hired a writer, though he doesn't seem to know who. When asked about the possibility of the character showing up in Joss Whedon's Avengers, however, he seemed much more confident, saying, "I don't think [James Rhodes/War Machine] shows up in that."

Frankly, the biggest thing to take away from this story is that Cheadle seems to be totally out of the loop when it comes to upcoming Marvel projects, though the lack of War Machine in The Avengers would explain why he wasn't on stage at last year's Comic Con. This concept seemingly goes all the way back to last February, when the actor said flat out that there wouldn't be a spin-off. Perhaps somebody should clue him in - I really don't want to see a third person play Rhodey.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.