Armor Wars: Don Cheadle Reveals the Plot of Marvel's Disney+ Series (Exclusive)

Armor Wars star Don Cheadle has offered the first explanation of the plot of the upcoming Marvel Studios series on Disney+. Marvel confirmed at the D23 Expo that Armor Wars is still in the works, revealing a new logo and that it picks up from where Secret Invasion leaves off. Speaking to Phase Zero host Brandon Davis for ComicBook.com, Cheadle says that the Armor Wars story is built on the story told in the pages of Iron Man #225-232 in 1987-1988, which remains a fan-favorite today, but has Marvel Studios putting its usual modern spin on the original tale.

"If you know anything about the lore, and you've read the comic books, you understand that it's a series that was built around Tony's Stark Tech getting out and Rhodey taking it on to go get this tech back from the bad hands, the bad actors whose hands it is in," Cheadle says. "And as Marvel does, it's also an opportunity to take the mythology and tip it on its head a little bit and come up with different ways to tell the story, so it's doing that and has done that in spades."

Writers David Michelinie and Bob Layton and artists Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith created the original "Armor Wars" story for Marvel Comics. It featured Justin Hammer as a major character but there's thus far been no word on whether Sam Rockwell will reprise his role as the villain from Iron Man 2 in the Armor Wars streaming series. 

Cheadle also told ComicBook.com about how Tony Stark's death has affected Rhodey and what it's like working with the new generation of Marvel Studios stars. "I think that's what's the fun of it, how expansive it can be," he says. "We don't lose the old character, but we bring in new characters, then we get to bring the newer and older characters together and that creates its own sort of thing. So that's the most fun of being in these shows, the opportunity to cross-pollenate each other's projects and find ways that these relationships continue to work and conflicts that we continue to cook up, and I think they do a great job of it, always making it interesting, exciting, and things you can't really anticipate."

Also returning for Armor Wars is Walton Goggins, reprising his role from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Armor Wars is a six-episode Marvel Studios series, with production expected to begin in Atlanta in early 2023.